^  .  S^,  c^ 


^^  PRINCETON,  N.  J.  ^ 


Purchased  by  the  Hamill   Missionary   Fund. 


BV  2060  .L42  1901 

"^x 

Lawrence,  Edward  A. 

1847- 

1893. 

Introduction  to  the 

study  oi 

fr^-ro-irrn  mi  e  c -i  rvino 

INTRODUCTION   TO   THE   STUDY 
OF  FOREIGN   MISSIONS 


INTRODUCTION  TO  THE 
STUDY  OF  FOREIGN  MISSIONS 


Being  Chapters  I,  II,  VII,  VIII,  IX 
of  Modern  Missions  in  the  East 


*     APR    8  1909 
EDWARD  A.  LAWRENCE,  D.D. 


NEW  YORK 

STUDENT  VOLUNTEER  MOVEMENT 

FOR  FOREIGN  MISSIONS 


Copyright,  1894,  by  HARPER  BROTHERS 
Copyright,  1901,  by  FLEMING  H.  REVELL  COMPANY 
Copyright,  1901,  by  FLEMING  H.  REVELL  COMPANY 


PROVIDENCE  IN  MISSIONS 

The  original  and  sole  Master  Missionary  is  oui 
Lord  Jesus  Christ,  and  as  Lord  of  his  kingdom  he  has 
put  his  own  divine  commission  upon  his  followers.  It 
is  '*  Come !  "  "  Go !  "  two  commands  in  one.  "  Come, 
learn  of  me !  "  "  Go,  preach  the  gospel !  "  His  first 
command  to  his  disciples  was,  "  Follow  me,  and  I  will 
make  you  fishers  of  men  " ;  his  last,  "  Go  ye  and  make 
disciples  of  all  the  nations."  Discipleship  and  apostle- 
ship  are  one  and  inseparable.  The  instinct  of  true 
Christian  life  is  everywhere  the  same.  We  learn  but 
to  teach ;  we  know  of  Jesus  but  to  tell  of  Jesus.  We 
commune  wath  him  but  to  communicate  him.  Even  so 
are  we  sent  as  he  has  been  sent.  The  commission  is 
identical ;  and  it  is  in  virtue  of  that  final  command  and 
according  to  our  fulfilment  of  it  that  we  are  to  experi- 
ence his  fulfilment  of  the  final  promise,  a  promise 
made  to  a  militant  missionary  church,  not  to  one  that 
is  at  ease  in  Zion.  Just  so  far  as  his  church  accepts 
her  responsibility  for  teaching  all  nations  to  observe 
all  things  whatsoever  he  has  commanded  her  may  she 
expect  to  hear  the  voice  of  him  to  whom  all  authority 
has  been  given  in  heaven  and  on  earth,  saying,  "  Lo, 
I  am  with  you  always,  even  to  the  end  of  the  world." 

Thus  the  church  is  a  coin  of  divine  minting.  One 
side  shows  the  likeness  of  its  Lord,  the  other  the  map 
of  the  world.  Both  devices  are  so  indelibly  stamped 
into  the  metal  that  to  mar  either  harms  the  coin,  to 


INTRODUCTION    TO    FOREIGN    MISSIONS 

efface  either  destroys  it.  The  world  is  itself  to  be 
finally  shaped  into  that  divine  likeness.  Thus,  Christ 
is  at  once  Authority  and  Pattern,  Inspirer  and  Organ- 
izer, Author  and  End  of  missions.  Apart  from  him 
we  can  do  nothing.  Through  him  we  can  do,  and 
teach  all  men  to  do,  all  things  which  he  has  com- 
manded us. 

Not  only,  then,  is  the  Bible,  in  such  a  sublime  sense 
as  is  just  dawning  upon  us,  the  Mission  Book  of  the 
World,  the  New  Testament  being  the  grammar  of  mis- 
sions, but  Christ  has  constituted  every  Christian  a  mis- 
sionary, Christianity  a  mission  religion,  the  church  the 
great  missionary  institute.  Such  is  the  divine  idea. 
What  now  has  been  the  fact  in  realization  of  that 
idea? 

We  interrogate  history,  which  is  not  merely,  as  has 
been  well  said,  "  an  excellent  cordial  for  drooping 
courage,"  but  is  also  a  rod  for  presumption  and  a  staff 
for  inquiry. 

When  we  ask  what  place  in  the  history  of  the  church 
has  Providence  given  to  missions,  we  notice  first  the 
continuity  of  missions.  We  distinguish  certain  grand 
mission  epochs,  and  are  apt  to  infer  that  these  com- 
prise the  whole  of  mission  history.  But  missions  are 
no  modern  discovery,  or  rediscovery  of  what  was  lost 
in  the  fourth  or  the  ninth  century.  There  have  been 
flood  and  ebb  of  the  tide,  alternations  of  enthusiasm 
and  lassitude,  of  zeal  and  apathy,  of  conquest  and  ap- 
parent defeat.  There  have  been  times  of  forgetful- 
ness,  stagnation,  corruption.  Many  false  methods 
have  been  employed  for  the  enlargement  of  Christen- 
dom. The  spirit  of  missions,  which  is  the  spirit  of 
Christ,  has  been  debased  with  the  lust  of  power,  or  the 
lust  of  gold,  or  the  lust  of  blood.  The  serpent's  trail 
is  seen  all  over  the  sacred  path.     The  church,  in  its 


PROVIDENCE   IN    MISSIONS 

corporate  capacity,  has  often  done  nothing  or  else  has 
done  all  amiss.  Yet  the  golden  thread  has  not  been 
broken,  the  prophecy  has  not  failed.  The  sway  which 
Christianity  exercises  in  the  world  to-day  is  the  result 
of  over  eighteen  centuries  of  continuous  effort  and 
achievement.  It  may  well  be  questioned  whether  there 
has  ever  been  a  time  since  that  world-wide  commission 
was  first  given  when  its  appeal  has  ceased  to  ring 
in  the  ears  and  find  response  in  the  hearts  of  some  of 
Christ's  followers,  when  at  least  individual  members 
of  the  church  have  not  been  planning  or  winning  fresh 
conquests  for  him. 

It  is  certainly  true,  in  the  words  of  Dr.  Maclear,  that 
"  you  can  point  to  no  critical  epoch  since  the  founda- 
tion of  the  church  —  whether  it  was  the  downfall  of 
the  Roman  Empire,  or  the  incoming  of  the  new  races, 
or  their  settlement  in  their  new  homes,  or  the  bursting 
upon  Europe  of  the  sea-rovers  from  the  north,  or  the 
moving  of  the  Slavonic  races  to  their  present  localities, 
or  the  discovery  of  the  New  World,  or  the  present  age, 
during  which  science  has  given  to  the  political  organ- 
ism a  new  circulation,  which  is  steam,  and  a  new  nerv- 
ous system,  which  is  electricity  —  when  the  spirit  of 
missionary  enthusiasm  has  not  been  rekindled  just  at 
the  juncture  when  it  was  most  needed."  Precisely  this 
was  the  anticipation  of  Jesus.  "  This  gospel  of  the 
kingdom  shall  be  preached  in  all  the  world  for  a  wit- 
ness unto  all  the  nations,  and  then  shall  come  the  end." 
He  announces  a  continuity  of  efforts.  So  far  from 
apprehending  that  the  removal  of  his  bodily  presence 
will  interrupt  or  impede  the  progress  of  his  kingdom, 
he  allows  its  universal  aim  to  date  from  that  event,  and 
looking  from  Olivet  around  on  all  nations  and  down 
"through  all  ages,  "  he  claims  with  an  absolute  assur- 
ance the  rise  of  a  succession  of  heralds,  who  shall 


INTRODUCTION   TO   FOREIGN    MISSIONS 


carry  on  a  task  hitherto  unknown  —  the  continuous 
proclamation  of  his  gospel  till  the  end  of  time." 

The  vision  has  been  fulfilled.  From  that  day  to  this, 
with  whatever  exceptional  interruptions,  with  what- 
ever grievous  perversions,  a  continual  succession  of 
men  has  gone  forth  from  the  church  into  the  world, 
intent  on  the  propagation  of  the  faith,  and  the  spread 
of  the  kingdom  of  Christ.  There  can  be  no  question 
that  in  every  one  of  these  nineteen  Christian  centuries 
mission  work  in  some  form  or  other  has  been  going 
on.  We  cannot  always  trace  it  directly,  but  we  can 
see  its  results.  The  second  and  third  centuries  are 
covered  with  dense  darkness,  so  far  as  the  records  go, 
but  none  were  more  intensely  missionary.  From  that 
time  on  to  the  present,  every  century,  I  think,  without 
exception,  shows  conspicuous  names  engaged  in  this 
work.    These  are  some  of  them :     • 


Fourth       century . . 

.  Ulfilas. 

Fifth               "      . . 

.St.  Patrick. 

Sixth               "       . . 

.  Columba. 

Seventh           " 

.  Augustine. 

Eighth             "       . . 

. .  Boniface. 

Ninth 

.  .  Ansgar. 

Tenth               "      . . 

.  .Vladimir. 

Eleventh 

. .  St.  Stephen  of  Hungary. 

Twelfth           "       . . 

. .  Bishop  Otto  of  Bamberg 

Thirteenth      "       . . 

. .  Raymond  Lull. 

Fourteenth      " 

.  .John  de  Monte  Corvino. 

Fifteenth 

.  .Las  Casas. 

Sixteenth        " 

.  .  Francis  Xavier. 

Seventeenth   " 

.John  Eliot. 

Eighteenth      " 

. .  Carey. 

Nineteenth      " 

. .  Judson. 

But  these  are  a  few  names  out  of  hundreds  known  to 

4 


PROVIDENCE   IN    MISSIONS 

US.  And  those  are  but  a  few  out  of  tens  of  thousands 
known  to  the  recording  angel  who  in  every  century 
have  braved  peril  and  endured  hardship  that  they 
might  spread  abroad  the  gospel. 

"  The  evidential  value  of  the  continuity  of  the  mis- 
sion enterprise,"  as  Dr.  Maclear  styles  it,  is  something 
not  to  be  lost  sight  of.  If  it  is  an  enterprise  which  has 
never  died  out,  lapsing  with  the  decline  only  to  rise 
with  the  recovery  of  the  church,  then  this  fact  alone 
would  not  only  define  its  inalienable  place  in  the 
church,  but  would  also  declare  its  significance  and 
glory. 

Glance  now  at  the  various  stages  of  periods  in  this 
continuous  mission  labor. 

The  usual  division  is  into  Primitive,  Mediaeval,  and 
Modern;  Primitive  missions  including  the  Apostolic 
and  post-Apostolic,  and  terminating  with  the  conver- 
sion of  the  Roman  Empire;  Mediaeval  missions  cover- 
ing the  next  millennium ;  Modern  missions  starting 
from  about  the  time  of  the  Reformation.  This  divi- 
sion, however,  is  arbitrary,  unwieldy,  and  inaccurate. 
The  Encyclopcudia  of  Missions  makes  these  divisions: 
The  Pentecostal  Church,  the  Apostolic  Church,  the 
ante-Nicene  Church,  the  Imperial  Church,  the  Feudal 
Church,  the  Crusading  Church,  the  Colonizing 
Church,  the  Organized  Church.  These  represent  the 
state  of  the  church  rather  than  the  stages  of  missions. 
There  is  another  division  by  localities :  Mediterranean, 
European,  Universal. 

The  most  natural  and  instructive  division,  however, 
seems  to  me  that  based  on  nationality.  It  is  the  method 
suggested  by  Jesus  himself,  "  Go  teach  all  nations,'* 
and  outlining  the  plan  of  his  kingdom's  progress, 
"  Ye  shall  be  my  witnesses  both  in  Jerusalem,  and  in 
all  Judea  and  Samaria  and  unto  the  uttermost  parts 

5 


INTRODUCTION   TO   FOREIGN    MISSIONS 

V 

of  the  earth."  First  the  sacred  city;  next  the  chosen 
people;  then  the  mingHng  of  Jews  and  Gentiles; 
finally  the  world  with  all  its  nations.  Guided  by  this 
principle,  from  our  later  standpoint  we  see  the  first 
stages  blended,  the  last  divided.  We  might  classify 
thern  as  Imperial,  Tribal,  Universal.  Or  more  fully: 
I.  Romanic;  2.  Teutonic;  3.  Slavonic;  4.  Universal. 
In  the  last  class  are  to  be  included  all  extra  European 
missions,  whenever  or  wherever  begun. 

Providence  in  missions  appears  especially  in  the  two 
factors  which  are  to  be  found  interacting  wherever  the 
church  has  done  true  service  for  Christ.  These  are, 
I.  Opportunity;  2.  Fidehty.  The  sphere  of  the  former 
is  external,  of  the  latter  internal.  Both  are  God-given, 
both  to  be  humanly  appropriated.  God  provides  the 
opportunity.  He  inspires  the  fidelity.  The  church 
must  accept  the  one  as  the  other.  Both  must  concur, 
though  either  may  precede;  the  opportunity,  as  has 
more  frequently  been  the  case,  stimulating  fidelity,  or 
fidelity  making  a  way  where  it  does  not  find  a  way, 
thus  creating  its  own  opportunity.  Nothing  will  better 
prepare  one  to  take  a  part  in  the  world-wide  movement 
of  to-day  than  to  trace  the  working  of  Providence  in 
the  history  of  missions. 

The  preparation  for  the  first  great  opportunity  be- 
gan long  before  the  summons  to  work.  Through  all 
the  patriarchal  and  prophetic  ages  Palestine  was  a 
great  training-school  for  missions.  All  that  while  God 
was  training  his  people  by  seclusion  to  that  purity  and 
tenacity  of  faith  which  must  be  the  inheritance  of  a 
religion  which  would  win  the  world  by  conquest  rather 
than  by  compromise.  At  the  same  time,  all  along,  scat- 
tered hints  of  the  universal  destiny  of  this  religion 
were  dropped  as  seeds  in  the  heart  of  the  people,  which 
should  ripen  in  the  fulness  of  time.     And  centuries 

6 


PROVIDENCE   IN    MISSIONS 

before  this  time  came  we  can  see  God's  hand  making 
the  Gentile  world  ready.  The  more  we  study  those 
ages,  the  more  shall  we  see  the  truth  of  the  remark 
of  the  German  historian  Droysen,  "  Christianity  is  the 
point  towards  which  the  development  of  the  old  pagan 
world  moves,  from  which  its  history  must  be  compre- 
hended/' 

In  the  ancient  civilization,  as  is  the  case  in  lesser 
degree  with  some  of  those  of  Asia  to-day,  religion 
and  life  were  closely  identified.  The  state  ruled  over 
both,  absorbing  the  individual,  creating  its  own  gods. 
All  the  relations  of  life  were  subject  to  the  state,  and 
each  separate  state  was  bound  up  with  its  own  local 
deities.  Such  compact  structures  could  be  shaken 
down  only  by  being  shaken  in  all  their  parts.  And 
how  should  these  rigid  systems  be  overthrown  by  a 
religion  which  approached  them  from  a  lower  level  of 
culture,  and  seemed,  in  fact,  indifferent,  if  not  even 
hostile,  to  culture ;  which  appealed  to  the  individual, 
in  states  where  personality  was  swallowed  up  in  patri- 
otism, and  claimed  a  universal  and  exclusive  dominion 
among  peoples  crystallized  into  intense  and  hostile  na- 
tionalities, and  presided  over  by  jealous  tribal  divini- 
ties? 

God  had  his  own  way  of  rendering  the  triumph  of 
such  a  religion  possible.  He  made  five  casts  of  his 
hand.  With  each  cast  he  broke  down  barriers.  With 
each  cast  he  threw  out  lines  into  all  the  earth,  which, 
in  his  own  time,  he  was  to  draw  together  into  one 
great  net  that  should  hold  in  its  meshes  the  fragments 
of  disrupted  kingdoms,  the  floating  elements  of  dis- 
solved nationalities,  among  which,  in  this  new  contact 
and  oneness  of  life,  the  personal  appeal  and  the  uni- 
versal claim  could  make  their  way.  There  were  five 
great  dispersions.     The  migrations  of  the  Aryan  race 

7 


INTRODUCTION   TO   FOREIGN   MISSIONS 

tDCgan  the  first  or  Aryan  dispersion.  From  their  prim- 
itive centre,  whether  in  Asia  or  Northern  Europe,  they 
pushed  themselves  out  into  one  after  another  of  what 
were  to  become  the  great  centres  of  civilization  —  into 
India,  Persia,  Greece,  Italy,  Gaul,  and  Russia.  The 
affinities  of  the  peoples  that  sprang  up  in  each  of  these 
countries  were  such  that  it  has  ever  been  easy  for  one 
common  life  to  possess  them  all.  In  India  to-day  one 
feels  the  latent  bond  of  relationship  between  the  citizen 
of  the  United  States  and  the  Brahman.  One  after  an- 
other the  various  branches  of  this  great  race  yield  to 
the  power  of  the  Universal  religion,  which,  originating 
in  the  Semitic  race,  has  used  the  many  scattered 
branches  of  the  Aryan  race  as  its  vehicles  and  messen- 
gers in  its  triumphant  progress  around  the  world. 

The  second,  or  Greek  dispersion,  which  had  its  be- 
ginnings in  the  nature  of  that  people,  was  extended  by 
the  campaigns  of  Alexander,  which  were  but  the  pre- 
ludes to  the  journeys  of  St.  Paul.  The  conqueror  was 
God's  hammer  to  beat  down  the  walls  with  which  the 
Persian  Empire  had  hemmed  in  the  restless,  coloniz- 
ing Greeks.  Then  God  scattered  these  cosmopolitans 
broadcast.  Under  their  predominating  influence, 
Alexandria  and  Antioch  became  centres  of  trade  and 
letters.  Asia  Minor,  Syria,  Egypt,  the  whole  section 
lying  along  the  Mediterranean,  was  Hellenized.  Their 
very  downfall  as  a  people  and  subsequent  calamities 
dispersed  them  but  the  more,  and  thus  broadened  their 
influence.  Says  Dollinger,  "  The  Greek  schoolmaster 
everywhere  followed  the  Roman  legionary."  A  new 
set  of  relations  was  formed  among  the  crumbling  na- 
tionalities, whose  members  were  brought  into  close 
mental  contact  through  Greek  commerce,  literature, 
philosophy,  and  language.  That  wide-spread  classic 
tongue  was  thus  preparing  to  be  the  receptacle  of 

8 


PROVIDENCE   IN    MISSIONS 

Revelation,  first  in  the  Septuagint  translation,  then  in 
the  original  version  of  the  Gospels  and  Epistles,  the 
only  books  of  any  of  the  great  religions  that  have  been 
primarily  recorded  in  any  other  than  an  Asiatic  tongue. 

A  third  time  God  flung  out  his  lines  afar  in  the 
Roman  dispersion,  or  distribution.  Then  in  the  west, 
as  before  in  the  east,  kingdoms  were  broken  up,  peo- 
ples denationalized,  and  both  east  and  west  men  were 
brought  into  legal  and  political  contact,  while  their 
roads  by  land  and  their  ships  by  sea  abolished  distance 
and  drew  men  into  physical  proximity.  Two  opposite 
processes  were  going  on  simultaneously  —  disorgan- 
ization and  reorganization.  But  while  the  old  pat- 
tern had  been  provincial,  the  new  was  universal.  Well 
has  Niebuhr  said,  ''  The  history  of  every  ancient  na- 
tion ends  in  Rome ;  the  history  of  every  modern  nation 
begins  in  Rome." 

It  is  easy  to  see  how  in  the  Greek  and  Roman  dis- 
persions God  had  set  certain  solvent  agencies  at  work, 
which  would  disintegrate  the  old  structures  of  pagan 
life.  The  power  of  each  ancient  state  was  broken, 
the  prestige  of  the  local  gods  was  lost.  Society  was 
emancipated  from  the  dominion  of  the  patriarchal  fam- 
ily. The  very  household  was  disintegrated  to  make 
way  for  personality,  liberty,  and  private  property.  The 
great  cities  which  succeeded  to  the  ancient  states  were 
not  grand  enough  nor  exclusive  enough  to  absorb  the 
patriotism  of  their  citizens.  The  vast  Roman  Empire 
was  not  compact  enough  to  have  much  hold  on  the 
loyalty  of  its  subjects.  Local  religion,  first  shocked 
by  the  defeat  of  its  gods,  was  afterwards  corroded  by 
Greek  philosophy. 

Thus  all  around  the  Mediterranean  the  isolation  and 
exclusion  which  had  prevailed  were  changed  to  dis- 
persion  and    concentration.      Diversity    and    hostility 

9 


INTRODUCTION   TO    FOREIGN    MISSIONS 

were  succeeded  by  uniformity  and  intercourse.  But 
the  former  pride  and  glory  had  been  followed  by  dis- 
content. The  old  objects  of  love  and  worship,  on 
which  men's  passions  had  been  centred,  were  torn  or 
melted  away,  and  nothing  had  been  found  to  take  their 
place.  Deep  dissatisfaction  prevailed.  Men's  lives 
were  empty.  They  were  sick  at  heart.  Brought  into 
close  contact  with  one  another,  they  were  not  united, 
but  were  at  odds  with  both  God  and  man.  The  unity 
of  the  Roman  Empire  was  a  mechanical  unity,  which 
could  only  hold  the  fragments  of  humanity  in  local  and 
legal  juxtaposition  until  the  power  appeared  that 
should  fuse  them  into  one  common  life.  What  a  mar- 
vellous mission  field  was  thus  offered  to  the  gospel! 
And  what  a  marvellous  Providence  had  prepared  it! 
It  is  God  who  tumbles  down  the  pagan  walls,  it  is  he 
who  melts  away  the  icy  barriers  with  the  breath  of  his 
mouth.  He  makes  the  mission  roads,  and  builds  the 
mission  bridges.  And  when  he  calls  the  mission  army 
forth,  lo!  already  he  has  entered  the  enemies'  camp, 
to  make  them  faint  and  fear.  He  worked  so  then, 
he  works  so  now,  in  India  as  in  the  Roman  Empire. 

But  there  were  two  more  dispersions.  The  fourth 
was  that  of  the  Jews.  Not  only  their  Babylonian  cap- 
tivity, but,  later  on,  their  own  growing  needs  and  tastes 
drew  them  into  the  movement  of  the  times  and  scat- 
tered them,  as  the  Jewish  Diaspora,  throughout  the 
civilized  world.  In  the  ancient  world  also  Judaism 
was  an  effective  leaven  of  cosmopolitanism  and  na- 
tional decomposition.  Thus  were  they  the  condition, 
not  only  of  the  rise  of  Christianity,  but  of  its  incor- 
poration into  the  heathen  world.  Their  proselytes 
hung  as  a  loose  fringe  to  Judaism.  Aroused  but  not 
fettered  by  its  new  truths,  these  Hellenists  were  just 
the  favorable  soil  for  the  gospel  seed.  Preaching  al- 
io 


PROVIDENCE   IN    MISSIONS 

most  always  found  its  first  audiences  in  the  ubiqui- 
tous synagogues  and  houses  of  prayer.  Every  syna- 
gogue was  a  mission  station  of  monotheism;  and  it 
was  those  who  had  been  lately  kindled  by  the  teaching 
of  the  prophets  who  most  readily  accepted  the  Messiah 
of  whom  these  prophets  spoke. 

Finally,  with  a  fifth  cast  of  his  hand,  God  flung  the 
Christians  out.  They  were  not  long  permitted  to  cling 
to  the  sacred  city,  but  were  even  driven  forth,  houses 
falling  about  their  heads,  to  wander  out  into  all  the 
world,  often  unintentional  and  unconscious  mission- 
aries, witnesses  to  the  truth  of  the  gospel  among  all 
nations. 

See  how  God's  work  is  done !  Grain  has  been  gath- 
ered from  many  distant  scattered  fields.  By  conquer- 
ing hoofs  it  has  been  ground  into  meal,  by  governing 
hands  it  has  been  kneaded  into  one  lump,  the  Roman 
Empire.  Now  shall  the  leaven  be  put  into  the  lump, 
that  so  at  last  it  may  become  like  unto  the  kingdom 
of  God.  Into  the  shattered,  uneasy,  inorganic  Roman 
world,  there  is  inserted,  by  the  labors  of  these  few 
Christians,  the  life  of  one  divine  Lord,  as  the  supply 
of  all  their  needs,  the  centre  of  all  their  passions  and 
affections,  through  the  vitalizing  power  of  which  they 
may  grow  into  one  people  and  spread  into  one  glorious 
kingdom. 

I  have  dwelt  at  some  length  on  the  preparatory  work 
of  this  era,  not  only  because  of  its  intrinsic  importance, 
but  also  because,  in  the  study  of  the  mission  work  of 
our  time,  I  find  myself  every  day  more  and  more 
referred  to  that  early  period,  as  the  type  and  the  key 
to  very  much  that  is  happening  now.  And  I  am  con- 
vinced that  if  any  seek  to  interpret  the  opportunity  of 
to-day  in  the  vast  empires  of  Asia,  they  must  carefully 
study  the  way  in  which  God  prepared  the  great  apos- 

II 


INTRODUCTION   TO   FOREIGN   MISSIONS 

tollc  opportunity  throughout  the  Roman  Empire. 
Droysen  says,  "  The  highest  achievement  which  antiq- 
uity in  its  own  strength  has  been  able  to  attain  is 
the  fall  of  heathenism."  Yet  we  may  add  that  it  did 
not  do  even  that.  For  antiquity  had  not  the  strength 
to  shatter  its  own  rejected  idols.  The  final  blow  came 
from  the  pierced  hand. 

The  apostolic  fidelity  needs  not  to  be  told.  It  stands 
recorded  in  the  Acts  and  Epistles  of  the  apostles.  He 
who  had  created  the  opportunity  and  sent  his  Son, 
sent  also  the  Holy  Spirit  at  Pentecost.  Thereafter  the 
persecuted  church,  for  the  first,  last,  sole  time  in  its 
history,  was  the  great  missionary,  needing  no  society 
for  propaganda,  for  it  was  that  itself.  There  is  a  mys- 
tery about  the  origin  of  many  Christian  communities, 
such  as  that  of  Damascus,  Rome,  Gaul,  and  Britain, 
which  is  explained  only  in  this  way.  As  is  to-day 
alleged  of  the  Mohammedans,  every  convert  was  a 
missionary.  The  merchantman,  the  servant,  man  or 
maid,  the  captive  hostage  or  slave,  the  Christian  wife, 
all  were  true  to  their  opportunity;  all  carried  their 
faith  with  them,  and  even  through  silence  proclaimed 
it  to  the  world  about  them.  Yes,  the  absent  and  the 
dead  did  the  same  work,  when  the  story  of  the  one 
exiled  and  the  other  martyred  for  his  faith  proved  to 
some  inquirer  the  message  of  salvation.  At  the 
head  of  all  these  were  the  apostles  and  their  compan- 
ions, who  waited  for  no  compulsion  to  scatter  them 
among  the  dispersed,  but  went  forth  like  blazing 
torches  to  set  the  world  on  fire  with  Christian  love. 
No  sooner  had  these  open  doors  been  entered  than  the 
second  great  opportunity  came  with  the  irruption  and 
distribution  of  the  northern  tribes.  It  was  another  of 
those  great  providential  migrations  of  population,  of 
which  history  is  full. 

12 


PROVIDENCE  IN   MISSIONS 

It  came  neither  too  early  nor 'too  late.  The  work  of 
Greece,  of  Rome,  of  Judea,  had  been  finished;  the 
work  of  Jesus  was  begun.  For  four  centuries,  along 
a  frontier  of  two  thousand  miles,  the  Roman  and  Teu- 
ton faced  one  another.  There  was  constant  contact 
and  interchange  between  Christian  Rome  and  the  rude, 
hardy,  simple  northern  tribes.  Missionaries  like  Ulfi- 
las  and  Severinus  wandered  forth  among  them,  to 
find  their  hearts  strangely  unfettered  and  unoccupied. 
Captives  were  taken  on  both  sides.  The  pagan  cap- 
tives learned  in  Rome,  and  returned  to  tell  their  coun- 
trymen, what  they  found  the  Christian  captives  had 
already  been  teaching  in  the  wild  northern  woods. 
Rome's  hired  legions,  too,  were  constantly  ministered 
to  by  holy  men,  who  brought  them,  while  they  fought, 
the  message  of  peace.  It  is  touching  to  think  of 
Bishop  Ulfilas,  with  his  Goths,  refusing  to  translate 
for  them  the  four  books  of  Kings,  because,  forsooth, 
they  needed  the  bit  more  than  the  spur.  Thus  the 
northern  hearts  were  moved  before  they  took  Rome, 
till  at  last  they  came,  they  saw,  and  they  were  con- 
quered, melting  away  into  Christianity  so  quietly  and 
so  swiftly  that  hardly  "  a  legend  or  a  record  remains 
to  tell  the  tale."  Here,  among  these  primitive  tribes, 
there  were  traits  of  personality,  independence,  and 
obedience,  of  manhood,  and  yet  more  of  womanhood, 
which  made  good  soil  for  the  gospel  seed. 

Yet  it  was  only  an  enduring  fidelity  that  mastered 
this  opportunity.  It  took  all  the  fiery  zeal  of  the  Celtic 
Church,  aided  by  the  organizing  power  of  Augustine 
and  the  Roman  missionaries,  on  to  the  close  of  the 
seventh  century  to  evangelize  Britain.  Winfred,  called 
the  father  of  Christian  civilization  in  Germany,  died 
a  martyr  on  the  shores  of  the  Zuyder  Zee.  "  Nor," 
says  Dr.  Maclear,  "  did  his  loving  disciples  and  suc- 

13 


INTRODUCTION  TO   FOREIGN   MISSIONS 

cessors  find  the  work  less  arduous,  less  liable  to  con- 
stant disappointment.  The  whole  of  the  latter  half  of 
the  eighth  century  is  a  record  of  alternate  success  and 
defeat.  Now  a  fresh  outpost  is  established,  now  it 
disappears  before  a  desolating  inroad  of  heathen  Sax- 
ons. Now  a  church  is  built,  now  it  is  levelled  with 
the  ground  by  the  same  remorseless  invaders ;  nor  was 
it  till,  with  indomitable  determination,  Charlemagne 
had  pushed  his  conquests  from  the  Drimel  to  the 
Lippe,  from  the  Weser  to  the  Elbe,  and  thence  to  the 
shores  of  the  Baltic,  that  the  wild  world  of  the  eighth 
century  could  be  lifted  out  of  the  slough  of  barbarism, 
and  the  civilization  work  of  intrepid  missionaries  could 
proceed  with  any  real  effect." 

There  was  yet  another  enlargement  of  opportunity 
when,  after  this  long  struggle  with  the  Celtic,  Teu- 
tonic, and  Scandinavian  tribes,  the  way  was  opened 
in  the  latter  half  of  the  ninth  century  to  the  Slavonian 
tribes.  Here,  too,  it  was  only  by  the  same  bold,  un- 
flagging faithfulness  that  the  gospel  won  the  day.  It 
passed  quickly  from  Bulgaria  to  Moravia,  and  thence 
to  Bohemia  and  Russia.  But  in  Poland,  Lithuania, 
Pomerania,  the  fight  seemed  almost  hopeless,  the  op- 
portunity not  to  exist.  It  is  passing  strange  to  read  that 
in  A.D.  1230  "  human  sacrifices  were  still  being  offered 
up  in  Prussia  and  Lithuania  in  honor  of  Potrimpos, 
the  god  of  corn  and  fruits,  and  PicuUus,  the  god  of 
the  nether  world;  while  infanticide  was  so  common 
that  all  the  daughters  in  a  family  were  frequently  put 
to  death ;  serpents  and  lizards  were  objects  of  worship, 
and  male  and  female  slaves  were  burned  with  the  dead 
bodies  of  their  master,  together  with  his  horses  and 
hounds,  hawks  and  armor."  Or,  again,  how  terribly 
confused  are  Christianity  and  bloody  paganism  in  the 
account  that  "  when  the  body  of  Rolf  the  Ganger, 

14 


]?r6vidence  in  missions 

who  had  accepted  Neustria  and  Christianity  together 
for  himself  and  his  Norse  followers,  was  to  be  buried, 
the  gifts  of  the  monasteries  for  the  repose  of  his  soul 
were  accompanied  by  the  sacrifice  of  one  hundred 
human  victims." 

Yet  the  work  went  on,  though  serpent  worship  was 
still  prevalent  in  Lithuania  in  the  fifteenth  century, 
and  though  Lapland  was  not  won  until  the  sixteenth 
or  even  seventeenth  century.  It  was  only  constancy, 
devotion  unto  death,  and  a  continuous  pressure  of  the 
gospel  upon  the  world,  that  accomplished  the  evan- 
gelization of  Europe,  even  with  all  the  providential 
preparations,  dispersions,  and  migrations. 

Through  it  all,  God  showed  that  he  could  preserve 
as  well  as  prepare.  Speaking  of  the  tenth  century, 
Bishop  Lightfoot  says :  "  I  can  compare  the  condition 
of  the  church  at  this  epoch  to  nothing  else  but  the  fate 
of  the  prisoner  in  the  story,  as  he  awakens  to  the  fact 
that  the  walls  of  his  iron  den  are  closing  in  upon  him, 
and  shudders  to  think  of  the  inevitable  end.  From  all 
sides  the  heathen  and  the  infidel  were  tightening  their 
grip  upon  Christendom.  On  the  north  and  west  the 
pagan  Scandinavians  hanging  about  every  coast,  and 
pouring  in  at  every  inlet;  on  the  east  the  pagan  Hun- 
garians, swarming  like  locusts,  and  devastating  Eu- 
rope from  the  Baltic  to  the  Alps;  on  the  south  and 
southeast  the  infidel  Saracen,  pressing  on  and  on  with 
their  victorious  hosts.  It  seemed  as  if  every  pore  of 
life  were  choked,  and  Christendom  must  be  stifled  and 
smothered  in  the  fatal  embrace.  But  Christendom 
revived,  flourished,  spread." 

The  methods  of  these  medieval  missions  were  full 
of  instruction,  both  for  imitation  and  avoidance. 

The  missionaries  were  nearly  all  monks.  They  often 
went  forth  like  Christ  and  his  apostles,  in  companies 

15 


INTRODUCTION   TO   FOREIGN    MISSIONS 

of  twelve,  with  a  thirteenth  as  leader,  and  became  pio- 
neers of  civilization  as  well  as  of  Christianity,  tilling 
the  soil  and  subduing  wild  nature  as  well  as  wild 
hearts.  Seven  such  companies  of  thirteen  are  named 
in  the  sixth  and  seventh  centuries  alone.  Brother- 
hoods and  sisterhoods  had  flourished  among  the 
Druids,  and  before  them,  and  seemed  congenial  to  the 
soil.  The  communities  formed  by  them  were  not  un- 
like the  Christian  villages  of  Southern  India,  or  the 
South  Seas,  or  the  Moravian  settlements  in  Greenland 
or  South  Africa.  The  monastery  was  not  one  great 
building,  but  a  village  of  huts  on  a  river  or  island, 
with  a  church,  a  common  eating-hall,  a  mill,  a  hospice, 
and  a  surrounding  wall  of  earth  or  stone.  Thither 
men  came  and  invited  others  who  could  not  maintain 
the  habits  of  their  new  life  in  heathen  homes.  Here 
they  concentrated  their  strength.  They  ploughed  and 
fished,  felled  trees  and  tended  cattle,  cared  for  the 
sick  and  poor,  trained  the  children  and  the  clergy, 
went  out  as  evangelists,  lingered  as  pastors,  returned 
and  copied  the  Scriptures,  while  they  received  and  pro- 
tected their  new  converts.  Very  unlike  was  this  to  the 
oriental  or  modern  idea  of  monastic  life.  But  lona 
and  Lindisfarne  seem  to  have  been  the  type  of  just 
what  was  needed  for  those  times. 

Throughout  there  was  a  striking  absence  of  ver- 
nacular literature,  and  great  anxiety  to  retain  the  Latin 
language  for  the  Scripture  and  liturgy,  though  the 
mother  tongue  was  never  entirely  banished  from  the 
Anglo-Saxon  service.  Miracle-plays  also  took  a  prom- 
inent part  in  their  worship.  Conversions  were  largely 
national  instead  of  individual,  and,  as  a  result,  fre- 
quently violent  rather  than  peaceable,  and  sometimes 
of  short  duration.  In  answer  to  the  often-pressed 
command,  "  Coge  entrare  "  —  compel  them  to  enter  in 

i6 


PROVIDENCE   IN    MISSIONS 

—  some  milder  spirits  added,  "  verbis,  non  verberi- 
bus  "  —  with  words,  not  blows  —  but  it  availed  little. 
When  Clovis,  Vladimir,  and  other  savage  chieftains 
were  converted,  there  followed  the  wholesale  baptism 
of  their  tribes.  We  read,  for  instance,  how  Russian 
peasants  were  driven  into  the  Dnieper  by  Cossack 
whips,  and  baptized  by  force.  Norway  was  converted 
in  the  tenth  and  eleventh  centuries  by  the  force  and 
craft  of  its  kings.  It  was  only  the  Reformation  that 
reached  the  heart  of  Norway.  Charlemagne  fought 
the  savage  Saxons  into  the  kingdom  of  God,  as  well 
as  into  his  own.  It  was  always  baptism  or  battle  with 
him  and  many  other  Christian  chiefs. 

It  is  not  strange,  then,  that  while  England  was  evan- 
gelized in  less  than  a  century  through  the  combined 
efforts  of  the  Culdee  and  Latin  churches,  yet  in  vari- 
ous Saxon  kingdoms  in  the  south  of  England  there 
was  for  some  time  a  pretty  regular  alternation  of 
Christianity  and  heathendom.  A  heathen  king,  so  the 
process  is  described,  becomes  Christian,  and  forthwith 
all  his  subjects  are  Christian.  He  returns  to  heathen- 
ism, or  dies,  and  is  succeeded  by  a  heathen,  and  no 
Christians  are  found.  Such  is  purely  national  con- 
version. Yet  a  Scotch  writer  says :  "  I  doubt  whether 
England  now  sends  as  many  missionaries  to  all  the 
world,  as  England  at  the  end  of  the  seventh  and  be- 
ginning of  the  eighth  centuries  sent  to  Frisia  alone. 
Certainly  from  Scotland  not  as  many  go  out  now  as 
went  from  our  shores  at  the  beginning  of  the  seventh 
century." 

This  wholesale  conversion  of  peoples  may  be  re- 
garded as  a  kind  of  national  infant  baptism,  after 
which  the  baptized  were  handed  over  to  the  instruction 
of  the  church,  i.e.,  of  the  clergy,  for  church  meant 
clergy.    Even  in  this  way  the  conversion  of  Germany 

17 


INTRODUCTION   TO   FOREIGN   MISSIONS 

was  a  work  of  several  centuries,  from  the  second  to 
the  eighth.  But  northeastern  Germany  (Prussians 
and  Slavs)  was  heathen  until  the  eleventh  and  thir- 
teenth. 

A  startling  interruption  to  the  progress  of  the  gos- 
pel broke  in  with  the  rise  of  Mohammedanism,  which 
either  extinguished  the  oriental  churches,  or  depressed 
them  into  a  tolerated  insignificance.  Already  corrupt, 
they  were  incapable  of  such  a  conquest  over  the  infidel 
as  the  Latin  church  had  won  over  the  pagans. 

Then  followed  a  movement,  both  in  its  character 
and  its  extent  among  the  most  remarkable  that  the 
world  has  seen.  We  may  not  refuse  to  call  the  Cru- 
sades a  great  mission  movement,  a  great  mission  en- 
thusiasm. However  worldly  motives  may  have  mingled 
with  the  zeal  of  the  church,  however  that  zeal  may 
have  been  misdirected  and  perverted,  using  the  sword 
of  the  flesh  instead  of  the  sword  of  the  Spirit,  seeking 
the  rescue  of  the  tomb  rather  than  of  the  faith  of  its 
Lord,  yet  it  was  a  true  uprising  and  outrushing  of  the 
missionary  spirit  of  Christianity.  The  new  life  had 
been  checked  in  its  expansive  work,  stripped  of  its 
sacred  places  and  original  seat.  It  had  been  threat- 
ened at  the  very  centres  of  its  power.  The  iron  walls 
,were  contracting  with  every  century.  Just  because  it 
was  irrepressibly  expansive,  and  with  the  instinct  that 
it  would  be  slain  if  it  should  be  stayed,  the  hemmed-in 
current  rose  in  a  flood  and  dashed  itself  in  fury  against 
the  opposing  walls.  Defeat  ensued.  With  all  their 
incidental  benefits,  the  Crusades  brought  no  mission 
conquests  for  Christ.  The  church  was  to  win  its  vic- 
tories on  other  fields,  and  in  different  ways.  The  Cru- 
sades ended  in  the  Inquisition,  which,  despairing  of 
the  conversion,  sought  the  compulsion  of  Moors,  Jews, 
and  heretics.    Yet  they  may  be  counted  among  God's 

i8 


PROVIDENCE   IN    MISSIONS 

preliminaries.  They  opened  the  largef  East,  made  Eu- 
rope more  cosmopoHtan,  prepared  the  way  for  Loyola 
and  the  Jesuits. 

The  modern  and  world-wide  opportunity  began  with 
the  discovery  of  the  new  West,  and  the  recovery  of  the- 
old  East.  What  a  providential  coincidence  of  the  men 
and  the  dates !  Columbus  and  Vasco  da  Gama !  Both 
seek  the  East.  But  the  one  sails  out  to  America,  the 
other  rounds  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope.  Vasco  da  Gama 
takes  up  for  completion  that  movement  of  dominion 
from  the  West  into  the  East  which  was  begun  by 
Alexander  and  the  Romans,  attempted  by  the  Crusad- 
ers, and  is  continued  at  this  present  day  by  the  nations 
of  Europe;  while  Columbus  inaugurated  that  move- 
ment of  population  from  the  East  into  the  West  which 
is  at  its  height  in  our  times.  Thus  pagan  Asia  and 
barbarous  America  were  brought  at  the  same  time 
close  to  the  heart  of  Christian  Europe.  It  is  another 
of  those  strange  coincidences  that  even  at  the  time 
when  the  universal  opportunity  opened,  the  men  were 
living  who  were  to  inspire  the  church  with  a  new  and 
loftier  fidelity  which  should  finally  prove  itself  true 
to  its  responsibility.  Within  a  quarter  of  a  century 
after  the  sailing  of  Columbus  the  Reformation  had 
begun. 

The  same  century,  too,  which  saw  the  world  opened 
wide  before  the  church,  saw  also  a  new  and  marvellous 
instrument  for  diffusing  the  truth  put  into  the  hands 
of  the  church ;  an  instrument  which,  when  applied,  did 
more  to  facilitate  her  communication  with  men  of  all 
classes  and  tongues  than  anything  which  has  come  to 
man  since  he  first  received  the  gift  of  speech.  I  mean 
the  art  of  printing.  That  simple  invention  made  it 
possible  for  the  Bible  to  be  for  the  first  time  in  very 
truth  the  People's  Book,  and  for  a  Christian  literature 

19 


INTRODUCTION   TO    FOREIGN    MISSIONS 

to  leaven  all  ranks.  As  the  Bible  was  the  first  book 
printed,  so  the  press  became  the  basis  of  our  great 
world-wide  Bible  and  Tract  Societies.  This  simple 
instrument  gives  a  more  characteristic  stamp  to  mod- 
ern missions,  in  their  difference  from  all  that  has  pre- 
ceded, than  anything  else  that  can  be  named. 

Closely  connected  with  this,  however,  as  a  part  of 
the  great  opportunity  in  preparation  was  the  revival  of 
classic  and  linguistic  studies  in  the  fifteenth  and  six- 
teenth centuries.  It  brought  the  church  into  nearer 
contact  with  the  original  Scriptures,  fitted  it  for  the 
acquisition  of  oriental  languages,  for  appreciating  the 
spirit  of  alien  peoples,  and  for  translating  the  Bible 
into  all  tongues. 

There  was  one  other  force  which  was  needed  to 
fully  equip  the  church  for  its  universal  activity,  and 
to  draw  the  nations  of  the  world  together  into  a  net, 
as  the  peoples  of  old  had  been  drawn  into  the  Grseco- 
Roman  Empire.  That  was  the  power  of  steam,  which 
was  to  bind  the  lands  together  with  bands  of  steel, 
turn  the  oceans  into  a  Mediterranean,  make  the  loco- 
motive an  emissary  of  God's  kingdom,  and  the  steamer 
a  morning-star  to  herald  the  day.  That  invention  was 
not  ready  to  begin  its  task  of  annihilating  space  until 
the  dawn  of  the  nineteenth  century.  But  it  was  ready 
in  time,  for  not  until  then  was  the  purified  church 
itself  roused  to  a  fidelity  grand  enough  to  undertake 
the  work  for  which  God  had  been  preparing  this  equip- 
ment. It  was  in  1807,  while  the  young  men  at  Will- 
iamstown  were  praying  and  studying  about  missions, 
that  Robert  Fulton  was  making  the  first  trip  of  the 
Clermont  from  New  York  to  Albany. 

But  the  great  modern  opportunity  which  opened 
with  the  sixteenth  century  was  presented  to  a  corrupt 
church,  a  church  not  faithful  to  its  Lord.    How,  then, 

20 


PROVIDENCE   IN    MISSIONS 

could  it  expect  to  establish  his  kingdom?  Yet  In  its 
own  way  that  corrupt  Latin  Church  did  respond  to 
the  appeal,  and  with  a  spirit  that  differentiated  it  at 
once  from  the  degraded  oriental  churches  of  the  time. 
It  proved  itself  a  missionary  church.  It  accepted  the 
universal  missionary  idea.  If  its  mission  work  had 
almost  come  to  a  stand-still  in  the  fourteenth  and  fif- 
teenth centuries,  it  has  never  ceased  since.  It  is  true 
that  a  degenerate  church  cannot  hope  to  lift  men  above 
its  own  level.  It  is  true  that  these  particular  missions 
frequently  served  the  Papacy  rather  than  Christ,  and 
policy  rather  than  truth;  that  these  mission  schemes 
were  too  often  merely  auxiliary  to  the  conquering  and 
bloody  schemes  of  grasping  potentates;  that  having 
sown  corrupt  seed,  often  amid  circumstances  of  horror 
and  atrocity,  the  peoples,  who  throughout  large  coun- 
tries and  even  continents  had  given  a  nominal  adhesion 
to  Christ,  had  been  left  in  the  darkness  of  brutal  igno- 
rance and  idolatrous  superstitions,  the  prey  of  an  un- 
educated, tyrannical,  and  tmscrupulous  priestocracy. 
No  doubt  the  Roman  Church  was  making  strenuous 
endeavors  to  recoup  itself,  by  its  missions,  for  its  losses 
in  the  Reformation,  the  Jesuit  order  being  founded 
in  1530,  thirteen  years  after  Luther  began  his  work. 

But  it  is  also  true  that  that  church  did,  first  of  all, 
comprehend  the  world-dominating  destiny  of  Chris- 
tianity; that  through  many  of  its  undertakings  there 
has  run  a  strain  of  high  and  heroic  loyalty  to  Christ; 
that  there  are  no  nobler  records  of  saintly  devotion  on 
the  mission  field  than  those  offered  by  some  of  its 
emissaries,  such  as  the  Jesuits  in  North  America,  and 
Xavier  and  his  followers  in  India,  China,  and  Japan. 
To-day,  the  self-denying  austerity  of  the  Roman  Cath- 
olic missionaries  is  one  of  the  things  held  up  as  a  re- 
proach to  Protestant  missions.     We  may  be  sure  that 

21 


INTRODUCTION   TO   FOREIGN   MISSIONS 

more  souls  than  we  can  number  have  found  their  way 
to  heaven  through  the  missionary  labors  of  Roman 
Catholic  priests. 

It  is  a  strange  fact  that  the  Reformation  which  re- 
newed the  fidelity  of  a  part  of  the  church  to  Christ  did 
not  seem  to  kindle  its  zeal  for  missions.  The  Bible, 
after  being  so  long  shut,  was  open.  There  was  the 
field.  Where  were  the  sowers  to  sow  the  seed?  The 
reason  commonly  assigned  for  this  neglect  is  the  fact 
that  the  Protestant  cause  was  too  much  occupied  in 
struggling,  first  for  bare  existence,  and  then  for  the 
development  of  its  life,  to  be  able  to  attempt  mission 
work.  That  is  not  a  valid  reason.  It  did  not  hinder 
the  Apostolic  Church  from  being  missionary.  We 
should  not  allow  its  cogency  if  applied  to  any  of  our 
local  churches.  Least  of  all  would  it  account  for  the  ab- 
sence of  the  mission  thought.  The  truth  is  that  the 
reformers  did  not  even  cherish  the  missionary  idea, 
and  that  they  were  largely  prevented  from  doing  so 
by  their  being  preoccupied  with  theological  controver- 
sies. The  church  needed  to  be  brought  yet  nearer  its 
Lord,  and  into  fuller  comprehension  of  his  plans,  be- 
fore it  would  be  equal  to  the  need. 

See  now  how  successive  waves  of  divine  influence 
flood  the  church,  and  how  each  lifts  it  higher  out  of 
the  low-tide  mud  of  selfishness,  until  it  floats  free 
and  loose  in  the  great  ocean  of  universal  love.  Ger- 
man pietism,  headed  by  Spener  and  Francke,  gives 
one  grand  uplift.  It  was  distinctly  missionary  in  its 
character.  Francke's  plan  for  his  institution  at  Halle 
was  that  it  should  become  a  universal  seminary,  where 
youths  of  all  lands  should  come,  where  the  gospel 
should  be  taught  in  all  tongues,  and  whence  messen- 
gers should  return  to  evangelize  all  peoples.  It  was 
from  Halle  that  the  noble  originator  of  Protestant 

22 


PROVIDENCE  IN   MISSIONS 

missions  to  the  heathen,  the  king  of  Denmark,  after 
conference  with  Francke,  in  1705,  drew  Ziegenbalg 
and  Pliitschau  forth  to  the  Tranquebar  mission  in 
India.  It  was  Francke  who  issued  the  reports  and  had 
the  control  of  the  work.  And  it  was  here  that  Count 
Zinzendorf  received  the  impulse  which  made  him  the 
head  of  the  Moravian  Brethren,  started  in  1722,  and 
which  to-day  is  one  of  the  most  thoroughly  missionary 
churches  in  the  world.  For  many  decades  after  that, 
it  was  the  land  of  the  Pietists  that  furnished  the  men 
for  missionary  societies  of  whatever  country.  Eng- 
land might  organize  the  work  and  raise  the  money, 
but  for  many  years  the  only  men  willing  to  go  out 
were  Germans. 

One  more  great  uplift  was  needed  before  the  church 
would  be  free.  This  came  in  the  revival  of  Wesley  and 
Whitefield.  Wesley  died  in  1791.  It  was  in  the  very 
next  year  that  William  Carey  preached  his  great  mis- 
sion sermon,  ^'  Expect  great  things  from  God ;  attempt 
great  things  for  God  " ;  a  sermon  which  proved  the 
starting-point  for  the  first  purely  English  missionary 
society,  and  thus  really  began  the  era  of  modern  mis- 
sions. One  of  the  strongest  influences  in  preparing 
Carey  for  this  work  was  a  small  volume  of  Jonathan 
Edwards's,  published  in  the  middle  of  the  last  century. 
That  same  spirit  had  wrought  in  New  England,  result- 
ing in  the  consecration  out  of  which,  early  in  this  cen- 
tury, sprang  our  own  societies.  Thus,  at  last,  the 
times  were  ripe.  The  work  was  there,  the  men  were 
there.  With  new  meaning  the  church  could  pray, 
"  Thy  kingdom  come."  Yet  even  when  thus  floating 
free,  it  is  strange  to  note  the  timidity  of  missionaries 
in  launching  forth,  and  the  various  delays  that  are 
made  before  they  are  willing  to  heave  anchor  and  away 
to  the  open  sea. 

23 


INTRODUCTION  TO   FOREIGN   MISSIONS 

The  truth  is  that,  with  the  exception  of  the  Moravi- 
ans, almost  all  extension  of  the  kingdom  of  God  prior 
to  the  time  of  Carey  was  dependent  on  the  extension 
of  earthly  kingdoms.  The  mission  enterprise  was 
closely  connected  with  political  or  commercial  or  ex- 
ploring enterprises.  It  followed  the  discoveries  or  the 
trade  or  the  conquests  or  the  colonies  of  the  leading 
powers. 

First,  in  modern  times,  came  the  supremacy  of  Spain 
and  Portugal,  and  it  was  Spanish  and  Portuguese  mis- 
sions that  flourished.  The  founder  of  the  Jesuit  order 
was  a  Spaniard.  It  was  from  this  centre  that  various 
orders  went  forth  to  take  possession  of  Mexico,  Cen- 
tral America,  Brazil,  Peru,  and  the  West  Indies,  while 
Portugal  planted  the  church  in  the  East  Indies.  The 
sixteenth  century  completed  the  triumph  of  the  Roman 
Catholic  propaganda.  For  then  came  the  supremacy 
of  Greater  Holland,  as  mistress  of  the  seas,  and  with 
it  the  spread  of  her  missions  to  Ceylon,  Java,  and  other 
islands.  The  sway  of  Greater  Britain  succeeded,  and 
she  and  her  American  daughter  have  long  been  leaders 
in  missions.  The  French  regime  in  North  America 
was  marked  by  French  missions,  in  the  same  way. 

Now  that  Germany,  supreme  on  land,  has  begun  to 
aim  at  maritime  power  and  is  spreading  her  colonies 
throughout  the  world,  we  should  expect  to  see  her  mis- 
sions expand.  Nor  is  our  expectation  disappointed, 
for  never  has  the  missionary  purpose  been  so  strong 
and  general  in  Germany  as  now.  Old  societies  are 
revived,  new  societies  are  formed;  Church  and  State 
alike  encourage  them;  patriotism  and  philanthropy 
conspire  to  lend  their  aid.  For  it  is  contact  that  brings 
the  sense  both  of  responsibility  and  power.  Contact  is 
the  great  opportunity.  Germany  of  the  Reformation 
had  no  such  contact  with  the  heathen  as  had  Spain,  no 

24 


PROVIDENCE   IN    MISSIONS 

such  foreign  development,  or  it  might,  too,  have  been 
a  great  propagandist.  Much  depends  on  the  foreign 
spirit  of  a  people,  as  well  as  on  its  Christian  spirit. 

Thus  in  nearly  all  the  movements  of  modern  cen- 
turies, missions,  like  trade,  have  followed  the  flag, 
depending  on  the  state  for  protection,  patronage,  and 
propagation,  which  expected  aid  the  state  has  often 
freely,  if  not  always  wisely,  bestowed.  They  have 
been  purely  national,  often  governmental  missions.  It 
is  only  the  highest  consecration  that  flings  itself  out 
upon  the  world,  and  makes  alike  its  own  contact  and 
opportunity.  The  great  development  of  the  present 
century  has  come  because  the  church  has  at  last  ceased 
hugging  well-known  shores,  and  has  put  out  into  the 
broad  open  sea ;  meaning  to  circumnavigate  the  globe ; 
abandoning  dependence  on  familiar  landmarks;  trust- 
ing, at  length,  to  the  compass,  the  midday  sun,  and  the 
Master,  who  is  with  us  in  the  ship ;  glad  of  the  shelter 
of  the  flag,  wherever  it  is  found  flying,  but  never 
lingering  long  beneath  its  shadow.  The  resources  of 
the  church  are  not  in  any  kingdom  of  this  world,  but 
in  her  Lord  and  herself. 

The  Dutch,  the  English,  and  the  Danish  missions 
mark  three  stages  of  advance  towards  this  ideal. 
When  Holland  was  first  mistress  of  the  seas,  she  made 
her  colonies  government  missions.  The  result  was 
400,000  government  Christians,  and  perversions  end- 
ing the  work  even  faster  than  conversions  had  begun 
it.  In  a  little  more  than  one  generation  after  religious 
disabilities  were  removed,  not  a  single  professing 
Christian  was  to  be  found  as  a  relic  of  the  Dutch 
missions. 

The  English  in  North  America  show  the  second 
stage.  The  conversion  of  the  Indians  was  a  leading 
The  colonial  seal  of  Massachusetts 
25 


INTRODUCTION  TO   FOREIGN   MISSIONS 

in  1628  had  the  device  o£  an  Indian  upon  it,  with  a 
motto  in  his  mouth,  "  Gome  over  and  help  us/'  John 
EHot,  "  the  first  of  the  great  Protestant  missionaries," 
did  a  wise  and  noble  work  among  the  Indians.  But 
he  and  they  all  did  it  as  ministers  of  English  congre- 
gations, and  their  work  was  connected  with  and  limited 
by  the  national  influence.  "  The  colonial  churches, 
brought  into  contact  with  pagans,  recognized  the  duty 
of  trying  to  convert  them ;  but  there  was  as  yet  no  idea 
of  making  the  preaching  of  the  gospel  the  sole  motive 
for  entering  heathen  lands." 

In  1 72 1,  Hans  Egede  sailed  from  Denmark  for 
Greenland  with  the  aim  of  evangelizing  it.  His  method 
was  peculiar,  and  marks  the  third  stage,  or  transition 
from  government  to  ecclesiastical  missions.  He  had 
organized  a  trading  company  which,  under  the  protec- 
tion of  the  Danish  government,  was  to  join  him  in 
making  a  settlement  in  Greenland ;  they  with  the  aim 
of  establishing  the  rule  of  their  country  there,  while 
he  established  the  rule  of  Christ.  "  In  both  objects  he 
succeeded,"  says  a  writer.  "  He  is  alike  the  apostle  of 
Greenland,  and  the  founder  of  Danish  sovereignty  in 
it."  It  was  just  after  this  that  the  Moravian  work  be- 
gan, and  set  the  whole  church  an  example  by  sending 
their  members,  untrammelled  by  nationalism,  into 
every  part  of  the  world,  "  measuring  their  obligations 
not  by  the  extent  of  a  nation's  sway,  but  by  the  extent 
of  Christ's  command."  It  is  the  difference  between 
converting  the  negroes  who  have  been  brought  to*  the 
United  States,  and  establishing  missions  in  South 
Africa. 

With  this  century,  then,  the  true  universality  of  the 
mission  work  was  made  clear  and  the  work  itself  prop- 
erly begun.  The  opportunity,  however,  has  gone  on 
enlarging.    Captain  Cook's  voyages  and  death  thrilled 

26 


PROVIDENCE   IN    MISSIONS 

men  with  a  fresh  sense  of  the  breadth  and  needs  of  the 
world,  and  it  was  the  reading  of  his  books  which  took 
many  of  the  first  missionaries  to  the  South  Sea 
Islands.  The  slave-trade  led  some  to  Africa.  The 
British  rule  in  India  led  others  to  that  land. 

How  full  have  the  last  fifty  years  been  of  new  dis- 
coveries, which  have  stimulated  to  fresh  endeavors ! 
The  deciphering  of  old  inscriptions,  the  recovery  of 
lost  languages,  the  disclosure  of  ancient  Scriptures  and 
religions,  the  great  geographical  and  political  move- 
ments which  have  in  rapid  succession  opened  India, 
China,  Japan,  Africa,  and  Korea  to  our  undertaking! 
The  mind  is  overwhelmed  at  the  display  of  the  Divine 
power  and  plan,  the  heart  is  filled  with  wonder  and 
with  awe.  Fidelity  once  awakened  and  turned  into  the 
field,  the  opportunity  and  fidelity  act  and  react,  each 
creating  the  other.  When  the  first  English  mission- 
aries went  to  India,  there  seemed  no  room  for  them. 
They  were  driven  out  to  the  Danish  possessions  in 
Serampore.  But  they  pressed  in  upon  the  country 
until  the  English  people  joined  them,  and  broke  the 
restricting  barrier  down.  They  made  their  way.  Now, 
the  great  opportunity  to  reach  the  women  of  India  and 
of  China  has  come  simultaneously  with  the  marvellous 
development  of  both  woman's  study  and  woman's  work 
at  home.  The  physicians  and  the  teachers  have  been 
training  here ;  lo !  their  work  is  ready  for  them  there. 

God  has  made  great  dispersions  of  peoples  before, 
but  never  so  great  as  now.  Steam  and  electricity  are 
vast  cosmic  forces,  pulsing  around  the  globe,  distribut- 
ing and  reconcentrating  all  the  elements  of  life  with 
marvellous  speed  and  power.  These  are  now  the 
agents  by  which  God  scatters  populations  in  strange 
parts  of  the  earth,  and  causes  all  races  to  mingle.  Emi- 
gration, colonization,  exploration,  and  commerce  set 

27 


INTRODUCTION    TO    FOREIGN    MISSIONS 

everything  in  motion.  These  Hnes  God  is  to  draw 
together  again  into  a  net,  in  whose  meshes  all  nations 
of  the  earth  will  be  found.  Our  task  is  to  see  that 
they  are  interlaced  in  a  divine  confederacy.  He  is 
flinging  Europe  into  America  in  the  tides  of  immigra- 
tion; flinging  the  Chinese  among  all  the  isles  of  the 
sea  and  into  our  land  by  laws  which  legislation  may 
retard  but  cannot  repeal.  Then  he  casts  England  out 
into  India  to  rule  and  to  teach.  He  spreads  Russia 
over  a  great  part  of  Asia;  scatters  the  Anglo-Saxon 
people  round  the  world;  pushes  Europe  down  on 
Africa,  to  explore,  to  rule,  and  to  save  or  to  ruin  it. 
Diplomatic  connections  bind  us,  where  nothing  else 
does.  We  are  intertwined  in  cosmic  relations.  Our 
duties  to  mankind  press  upon  us.  Have  we  a  fidelity 
to  match? 

Nothing  can  be  more  plain  than  that  God  is  bent  on 
the  conquest  of  the  world.  He  shapes  history  in  the 
interests  of  his  church.  He  has  mapped  out  the  world 
for  his  kingdom.  We  have  not  to-day  to  create  the 
opportunity.  It  is  here.  We  have  not  to  draw  the 
inspiring  presence  from  afar.  He  is  at  our  doors. 
All  we  have  to  do  is  to  accept  the  double  gift  of  the 
field  and  the  force  and  go  forth  to  overcome  the  world. 


28 


IT 

THE   PRINCIPLES    OF   MISSIONS 

THE    MISSION,    AIM,    SCOPE,    MOTIVE,    CALL, 
FITNESS,    AND    FITTING 

Our  swift  tour  through  some  of  the  great,  central, 
critical  mission  fields  of  the  world  is  completed.  Like 
a  naturalist  returning  from  an  exploring  cruise,  we 
bring  back  with  us  a  full  cargo  of  specimen  mission 
facts.  But,  as  in  his  case,  our  labor  is  only  begun. 
It  is  not  enough  to  dump  our  load  at  port  and  call  its 
total  bulk  the  net  gain  of  our  trip.  Our  collected 
facts  must  be  analyzed,  classified,  labelled,  organized. 
Their  significance  must  be  found,  and,  since  this  is 
a  moral  sphere,  their  application  must  be  made. 

In  other  words,  there  is  a  Science  of  Missions.  By 
an  inductive  study  of  the  facts  and  experiences  of  the 
past  and  present,  the  near  and  the  remote,  it  dis- 
covers the  underlying  principles  which  pervade  the 
whole  work.  These  teachings  of  experience  it  com- 
pares with  the  primal  impulse  of  faith,  from  which 
the  whole  proceeds.  Assuring  itself  of  their  con- 
gruousness  and  coincidence,  it  then  reaches  the  illu- 
minated standpoint  from  which  it  may  resurvey  and 
control  the  work.  With  ever-growing  clearness  it 
applies  to  each  detail  the  principles  and  methods  thus 
suggested  by  faith  and  confirmed  by  experience.  The 
mission  undertaking  becomes  an  orderly,  continuous, 
organized  appropriation  of  the  world  for  the  Lord 
Jesus  Christ.     In  this  chapter  we  shall  consider  such 

29 


INTRODUCTION   TO    FOREIGN    MISSIONS 

preliminary,  fundamental  points  as  the  mission  aim, 
scope,  7notive,  call,  fitness,  and  fitting. 

What  is  the  aim  of  Christian  missions?  This  is  the 
clew  to  the  whole  thing.  The  end  shapes  the  begin- 
ning and  directs  every  step  along  the  way. 

Is  the  aim  the  conversion  of  sinners?  That  is  an 
aim  of  the  church  in  all  its  operations,  at  home  and 
abroad ;  hence  it  is  no  characteristic  mark  of  missions. 

Is  the  aim  the  conversion  of  the  world?  That  is 
far  too  vague.  It  says  at  once  too  much  and  too 
little.  The  mission  must  not  stop  with  the  conver- 
sion of  heathen.  It  must  seek  their  edification  and 
sanctification.  It  must  not  stop  with  individuals.  It 
must  build  them  up  into  a  Christian  society.  On  the 
other  hand,  there  is  no  warrant  founded  on  Scripture, 
reason,  or  experience  to  suppose  that  the  world  is  to 
be  even  converted,  far  less  Christianized,  through  dis- 
tinctive mission  work  as  contrasted  with  direct  min- 
istrations of  the  church. 

God's  great  agent  for  the  spread  of  his  kingdom 
is  the  church.  In  every  land  he  operates  through  the 
church;  and  missions  exist  distinctly  for  the  church. 
They  have  both  their  source  and  their  aim  in  that. 
They  are  the  reproductive  faculty  of  the  parent  church, 
the  constituting  agency  of  the  infant  church.  Every 
church  should  work  out  into  a  mission ;  every  mission 
should  work  out  into  a  church.  The  conversion  of 
souls  is  a  necessary  part  of  this.  The  primary  aim 
of  missions  is  to  preach  the  gospel  in  all  lands.  The 
ultimate  aim  is  to  plant  the  church  in  all  lands.  When 
they  have  done  that,  their  work  is  accomplished.  Then 
the  church  of  each  land  thus  planted  must  win  its 
own  people  to  Christ.  The  converts  must  convert. 
The  new  church  must  evangelize  and  Christianize. 
India,  China,  Japan  are  each  to  be  turned  to  Christ, 

30 


THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  MISSIONS 

not  by  missions,  but  by  the  Indian,  the  Chinese,  the 
Japanese  churches,  when  these  churches  shall  have 
been  security  planted  by  missions. 

This  ultimate  aim  of  missions  was  recognized  in  a 
tract  published  by  the  American  Board  in  1856.  The 
Rev.  Henry  Venn,  former  Secretary  of  the  Church 
Missionary  Society,  a  little  later  expressed  it  in  a 
classic  form.  The  object  of  missions,  he  says,  is 
"  the  development  of  native  churches  with  a  view  to 
their  ultimate  settlement  upon  a  self-supporting,  self- 
governing,  and  self-extending  system.  When  this 
settlement  has  been  effected,  the  mission  will  have 
attained  its  euthanasia,  and  the  missionary  and  all 
missionary  agency  can  be  transferred  to  '  the  regions 
beyond.'  "  Yet  this  aim  has  not  been  clearly  under- 
stood by  our  churches  or  our  people  at  large.  Very 
many  false  ideas  about  the  work,  entertained  at  home, 
very  many  mistakes  made  on  the  ground,  may  be 
directly  traced  to  a  misconception  of  the  mission  aim. 

Our  ideas  of  the  work  are  apt  to  be  too  atomistic. 
We  simply  keep  tally  of  the  number  of  converts  when 
we  ought  to  be  planning  for  the  organization  of 
young,  healthy  churches.  We  judge  missions  by  the 
annual  number  and  average  cost  of  each  convert,  as 
if,  quite  apart  from  the  infinite  value  of  every  soul, 
the  worth  of  such  converts  as  St.  Paul,  Clement,  Ul- 
filas,  and  St.  Patrick,  or  as  Neesima,  Narayan  She- 
shadri,  Ahok,  or  K.  M.  Banerjee,  as  apostles  to  their 
own  people,  could  be  computed  by  any  mathematical 
process.  This  atomistic  idea  is  what  renders  it  pos- 
sible for  the  claims  of  souls  at  home  to  be  set  up  in 
competition  with  the  claims  of  those  abroad.  It  is 
what  gives  the  monotonous  aspect  to  a  work  which 
is  of  more  thrilling  interest  than  the  winning  of 
earthly  battles  and  the  founding  of  earthly  empires. 

31 


INTRODUCTION   TO    FOREIGN    MISSIONS 

It  accounts  also  for  much  of  the  unfruitfulness  and 
dependence  of  mission  work. 

Another  evil  resulting  from  ignorance  of  the  true 
aim  is  the  pessimistic  view  often  held  of  the  under- 
taking. So  many  missionaries  for  so  many  souls ! 
In  China  and  Japan  one  for  so  many  hundreds  of 
thousands.  How  can  they  convert  the  world?  If 
missionaries  were  required  to  do  this,  a  hundredfold 
the  number  would  not  suffice.  But  the  mathematical 
method,  though  important  enough  in  its  way,  gives 
no  proper  test  of  the  character,  progress,  or  promise 
of  the  work.  Missions  are  but  a  step,  though  the 
first,  and  it  may  be  the  longest  single  step  in  the 
conversion  of  the  world.  The  main  part  of  the  task 
devolves  on  the  native  church  in  each  land. 

Our  part  is  to  organize  individuals  whom  we  may 
convert  into  an  indigenous,  independent,  and  expan- 
sive church,  which  shall  be  the  type  of  a  native 
and  reproductive  Christianity.  We  are  to  found  this 
church  on  Christ  and  the  apostles,  to  train  it  from 
the  start  in  the  principles  of  self-reliance,  self-control, 
and  self-propagation.  We  are  to  develop  its  ministry, 
found  its  institutions,  organize  its  work.  From  that 
point  the  attitude  of  the  mission  to  the  church,  and 
of  the  missionary  to  the  native  pastor,  is  to  be  that 
of  John  the  Baptist  to  Jesus :  "  He  must  increase, 
but  I  must  decrease."  The  true  spirit,  therefore,  of 
both  mission  and  missionary  is  that  of  self-efface- 
ment. They  must  recognize  from  the  start  that  their 
own  part  in  the  work  is  as  surely  transitory  as  it 
is  necessary.  They  must  labor  with  all  zeal  to  render 
themselves  unimportant,  and  rejoice  over  nothing  so 
much  as  to  find  that  they  are  no  longer  needed  and 
can  be  dispensed  with.  This  temporary  or  scaffold- 
ing character  of  mission  work  forms  perhaps  its  most 

32 


THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  MISSIONS 

radical  distinction  from  all  work  of  the  pastorate  at 
home. 

The  science  of  missions  is  one  of  the  most  fascinat- 
ing and  sublime  of  sciences,  demanding  the  exclusive 
devotion  of  a  lifetime  of  study  and  experience;  and 
this  because  the  foreign  mission  work  is  one  of  the 
most  glorious  of  enterprises.  The  aim  which  inspires 
and  sustains  it  is  clarified  and  illustrated  by  several 
considerations  which  deserve  notice.  It  goes  hand  in 
hand  with  constraining  love  of  Christ,  and  a  truly 
spiritual  conception  of  the  task. 

"  Spiritual  agents  for  spiritual  work  "  is  the  first 
qualification  to  be  laid  down  by  every  missionary 
organization.  These  words  of  the  late  Henry  Venn 
constitute  a  fundamental  principle  in  the  Church  Mis- 
sionary Society :  *'  We  take  the  best  men  who  offer 
themselves  to  us  according  to  the  standard  fixed  by 
the  fathers  and  founders  of  the  society  —  a  standard 
confirmed  by  the  practical  experience  of  every  year 
in  the  mission  field  as  comprising  the  only  qualifica- 
tions which  can  win  souls  for  Christ.  We  seek  men 
who  have  so  felt  the  constraining  love  of  Christ  as 
to  be  weaned  by  it  from  the  love  of  the  world,  and 
to  be  willing  to  spend  and  be  spent  for  him  —  men 
who  know  what  true  conversion  of  the  soul  is  by  per- 
sonal experience,  and  can  testify  to  others  that  they 
have  found  the  pearl  of  great  price.  It  is  by  no 
formula  of  doctrine  that  we  judge,  but  by  the  spirit 
of  the  men." 

Everything  depends  on  the  willingness,  the  con- 
secration. The  call  is  for  more  men.  You  are  one 
of  the  few  to  whom  it  can  come.  Are  you  ready 
to  go  where  Christ  wants  you?  When  you  hear  that 
whispered  voice  saying,  ''  Follow  thou  me,"  will  you 
not  press  on,  obedient  to  the  vision?     Sometimes  you 

33 


INTRODUCTION  TO   FOREIGN    MISSIONS 

must  even  go  in  the  very  teeth  of  providence.  Yet 
this  may  be  only  the  testing  of  your  purpose.  There 
may  be  at  this  very  time  some  who  are  inchned  to 
the  mission  field,  yet  hold  back  from  the  fear  that 
they  may  not  be  accepted.  Do  not  be  deterred  by 
this  preliminary  obstacle.  Pray  until  your  inclina- 
tion grows  to  a  purpose  and  an  enthusiasm.  Com- 
mune with  God  until  light  and  strength  come,  then 
offer  yourself  to  your  board.  If  the  door  is  closed, 
you  have  done  no  more  than  your  duty,  and  the  op- 
portunity of  quenchless  enthusiasm  has  opened  heav- 
ier doors  than  any  closed  before  you.  The  true  mis- 
sionary spirit,  though  delayed,  will  knock  again  and 
again.  If  the  door  remains  shut,  you  may  find  or 
make  other  doors  through  which  to  pass  to  your  true 
work. 

This  spirit  of  personal  consecration  to  a  life  work 
can  atone  for  the  lack  of  almost  everything  else,  but 
nothing  can  atone  for  the  lack  of  it.  He,  who,  cut 
off  from  the  traditions  of  the  past,  from  the  associa- 
tions of  his  friends,  from  the  counsel  of  his  brethren 
and  fathers,  is  to  become  the  founder  of  churches, 
must  be  sure  of  one  possession.  He  must  know  God. 
If  he  knows  him  well,  with  that  clearness  of  vision 
which  comes  from  the  pure  heart  and  that  inti'macy 
which  is  the  result  of  self-surrender,  he  has  the  key 
to  all  other  knowledge  and  possessions.  Such  a  con- 
secration will  fit  him  to  be  a  soul-winner,  a  church- 
father,  a  kingdom-founder,  a  true  missionary.  Now 
let  the  consecrated  man  set  forth.  At  the  best  he 
will  never  in  himself  be  sufficient  for  these  things. 
But,  when  in  the  work,  grace  may  make  him  meet 
for  the  Master's  service. 

Be  sure,  however,  that  he  accepts  the  principles  of 
Christianity  as  taught  by  Christ  and  the  apostles  and 

34 


THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  MISSIONS 

summarily  expressed  in  the  Apostles'  and  the  Nicene 
Creeds,  and  as  developed  in  the  harmonious  and  con- 
nected elements  of  the  great  Protestant  creeds  and 
writings.  Far  more  care  is  needed  as  to  any  pecu- 
liarities or  tendencies  of  belief  than  in  the  case  of  a 
pastor  at  home.  With  such  a  pastor  any  individual 
deficiencies  or  eccentricities  of  faith  are  largely  dis- 
counted among  those  who  have  so  many  other  sources 
of  instruction.  Varying  peculiarities  of  different  men 
and  churches  offset  one  another,  often  contributing 
to  the  healthy  development  of  theology.  The  effect 
of  such  peculiarities  in  the  belief  of  the  missionary 
might  be  very  unfortunate.  If,  however,  he  has 
proved  himself  sound  in  faith  and  in  judgment,  he 
can  be  trusted  to  shape  the  theological  thought  of 
the  mission  church.  He  must  be  trusted  to  do  this. 
It  would  be  most  harmful  to  the  work  for  a  man 
who  has  begun  an  important  enterprise  to  be  with- 
drawn from  it  on  doctrinal  or  any  other  grounds. 
It  should  be  done  only  in  the  case  of  fundamental 
departure  from  the  faith.  Freedom  must  be  the  rule 
on  the  field.  Therefore  I  would  be  the  more  con- 
cerned to  have  him  rooted  and  grounded  in  the  faith 
before  he  goes  forth.  Send  out  only  the  trustworthy 
—  those  who,  while  firm  in  their  own  convictions, 
will  know  how  to  work  with  others,  recognizing  and 
respecting  differences  of  opinion  and  temperament. 

A  general  harmony  of  feeling  and  a  spirit  of  co- 
operation in  work  are  of  the  first  importance  in  the 
missionary  field.  I  cannot  do  better  than  to  quote 
here  from  the  official  private  instructions  of  the 
Church  Missionary  Society,  for  they  embody  truths 
which  I  have  seen  to  be  most  important :  "  Learn  to 
cherish  a  wide  interest  in  the  mission  to  which  you 
belong;   to  identify  yourself  m  sympathy  and  counsel 

35 


INTRODUCTION    TO    FOREIGN    MISSIONS 

with  your  brethren,  as  well  as  with  your  own  pecu- 
liar department,  as  not  knowing  whether  the  Lord 
may  answer  your  prayers  by  prospering  your  brother's 
work  rather  than  your  own.  This  spirit  of  coopera- 
tion should  culminate  in  the  establishment  of  a  native 
church  which  will  be  rooted  in  the  spiritual  soil,  and 
in  the  end  will  occupy  the  field  to  the  exclusion  of 
all  necessity  of  cooperation  among  various  foreign 
missions.  I  count  it  the  richest  acquisition  of  my 
world-round  journey  to  have  reached  some  clearer 
discernment  of  this  mission  aim  —  the  vital  native 
church.  Thus  conceived,  the  cause  of  foreign  mis- 
sions is  at  once  grand  enough  to  arouse  all  the  enthu- 
siasm and  employ  all  the  energies  and  talents  of  the 
churches  of  Christendom,  yet  plain  and  practicable 
and  feasible  enough  to  command  the  approval  both 
of  enlightened  faith  and  of  prudent  business  judg- 
ment. 

Such  being  the  aim,  what  is  the  scope  of  missions? 
There  need  be  no  difficulty  in  defining  this.  It  is 
simply  as  broad  as  God's  redemptive  purpose;  as 
broad  as  humanity.  The  church  is  to  embrace  all 
mankind;  it  must  propagate  itself  among  all  man- 
kind. None  are  too  near,  none  too  remote,  none  too 
high,  none  too  low  for  the  gospel.  The  most  savage 
tribes  are  within  the  sphere  of  its  influence.  Weak, 
decaying  races,  whose  extinction  cannot  be  arrested 
and  may  even  seem  hastened  by  the  touch  of  Chris- 
tianity, are  still  to  be  saved,  and  saved  by  the  church. 
The  proudest  races  and  classes  of  Asia  are  within  the 
gospel  scope.  There  may  be  expediency  in  a  certain 
order  of  time,  in  a  certain  proportion  of  labors  among 
different  races,  varying  both  according  to  opportunity 
and  to  the  relations  of  one  race  with  another.  But 
all  who  are  not  within  the  sphere  o€  Christian  church, 

36 


THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  MISSIONS 

all  heathen,  all  Mohammedans,  all  Jews,  come  within 
the  range  of  mission  effort. 

Does  this  scope  include  dead  or  corrupt  nominal 
Christians?  If  at  all,  how  far  are  missions  to  be 
carried  on  among  such  people?  Some  consider  this 
no  field  for  the  missionary,  and  would  work  only 
through  the  corrupt  churches.  Others  would  pros- 
elyte from  them  and  place  themselves  in  direct  antag- 
onism to  their  existing  institutions.  But,  as  through- 
out, so  here,  our  clearly  discerned  aim  will  settle  the 
principle.  Christian  judgment  must  decide  each  par- 
ticular case.  If  a  living  church,  in  living  contact 
with  Christ  and  God's  word,  occupy  the  ground,  mis- 
sions are  ruled  out,  even  though  the  preexisting 
church  may  have  what  we  consider  erroneous  views 
and  practices. 

But  if  the  church  be  dead  or  corrupt,  a  scandal  to 
infidels  and  pagans ;  if  it  withhold  the  Word  of  life 
and  the  ministrations  of  the  gospel  from  the  masses, 
casting  a  dark  shadow  over  a  people  instead  of  shed- 
ding light  upon  them,  then  the  field  is  open  for  mis- 
sions. Whatever  its  historic  connections,  it  has  lost 
its  spiritual  relation  to  Christ,  and  is  in  some  ways 
worse  than  no  church,  because  it  caricatures  Chris- 
tianity and  makes  it  offensive  to  the  moral  sense  of 
men.  What  relations  the  missions  should  assume  to 
such  putrefying  churches  will  depend  mainly  on  those 
churches  themselves.  If  they  will  receive  the  new 
impulse  of  life  that  has  come  throbbing  over  to  them 
from  other  lands,  if  they  will  let  themselves  be  resus- 
citated and  restored  to  living  relations  with  Christ  and 
his  work,  then,  by  all  means,  the  mission  aim  should 
be  to  reestablish  the  old  church.  If,  in  spite  of  an- 
tagonism, any  of  those  churches  can  be  won  into  a 
return,   through   the   stimulating   and   demonstrating 

37 


INTRODUCTION   TO   FOREIGN    MISSIONS 

power  of  small  Protestant  communities  drawn  out 
from  among  them  and  living  alongside  of  them,  then 
these  new  Protestant  churches  will  have  served  their 
end,  and  their  missionary  founders  may  be  satisfied 
with  a  limited  growth,  perhaps  a  temporary  existence. 
But  the  dead  church  that  will  not  be  revived  must 
be  rooted  out  and  broken  up.  And  it  will  be  rooted 
out,  in  time,  by  the  expulsive  power  of  the  new  life 
in  the  new  churches. 

The  Roman  Church  varies  greatly  in  different  lands. 
In  many  it  is  sadly  degenerate.  Yet  it  shows  such 
possibilities  of  life  and  growth,  of  piety  and  power, 
that  Protestant  missions  in  Papal  lands  always  seem 
to  need  some  special  justification.  That  justification 
they  certainly  have  in  Mexico,  Central  and  South 
America,  and  in  Spain.  In  Italy  our  main  endeavor 
should  be  to  strengthen  the  old  Waldensian  Church 
and  the  new  Free  Italian  Church,  to  help  them  unite 
and  equip  themselves  for  the  work  of  simply  occupy- 
ing their  own  land.  France  is  not  a  proper  mission 
field.  The  Protestant  Huguenot  Church  is  already 
living  and  thriving  there,  and  our  endeavor  should  be 
simply  to  help  that  in  its  growth.  The  work  of  Miss 
De  Broen  and  Dr.  McAU,  so  promising  and  important, 
is  in  fact  simply  auxiliary  to  the  French  Protestant 
Church,  and  there  seems  little  question  that  whatever 
men  or  funds  may  be  sent  from  abroad,  its  operations 
will  be  more  and  more  merged  into  the  regular  activ- 
ities of  a  vigorous  French  Church.  There  are  Prot- 
estant churches,  however,  that  seem  dead  or  slumber- 
ing. The  church  of  Bohemia  is  one  of  these,  and  the 
American  Board  Mission  in  Prague  is  seeking,  amid 
many  difficulties,  to  bring  the  gospel  to  the  people. 
I  was  favorably  impressed  with  what  I  saw  of  its 
work.     But  we  must  be  careful  lest  our  judgment  of 

38 


THE  PRINCIPLES  OF   MISSIONS 

a  church  should  be  mis  judgment,  springing  largely 
from  differences  of  national  temperament  and  from 
ignorance.  There  are  those  who  think  it  important 
to  have  missions  among  the  German  churches,  while 
to  the  Roman  Church  the  United  States  is  still  dis- 
tinctively mission  ground.  To  me  it  seems  far  wiser 
to  plant  the  chiirch  in  every  land  where  there  is  none 
at  all  or  only  a  putrefying  church,  and  to  leave  it  to 
the  interaction  of  the  great  Christian  bodies  upon  one 
another  to  bring  about  that  mutual  correction  and  in- 
spiration which  shall  one  day,  we  hope,  make  Chris- 
tianity universal  and  complete  at  once.  At  most  we 
shall  do  well  in  such  lands  to  confine  ourselves  to 
strictly  evangelistic  and   auxiliary   operations. 

What  is  the  mission  motive?  Let  us  first  exclude 
irrelevant  considerations.  The  aim  is  again  the  test. 
No  motive  can  be  reckoned  as  primary  which  does 
not  bear  directly  on  the  aim. 

The  general  improvement  and  elevation  of  man- 
kind, their  relief  from  poverty,  ignorance,  suffering, 
superstition,  and  oppression  —  all  this  is  greatly  to 
be  desired  and  invariably  proceeds  from  mission  work, 
for  Christianity  always  humanizes,  always  civilizes. 
Such  results  are  incidental  arguments  for  missions, 
evidences  of  their  efficiency,  expressions  of  their  love, 
avenues  for  their  enlargement.  But  while  they  re- 
inforce, they  do  not  constitute,  the  mission  motive, 
being  of  a  distinctively  philanthropic,  not  missionary, 
character.  All  work,  medical,  educational,  literary, 
or  whatever  else,  which  falls  short  of  the  soul,  is  not 
properly  mission  work,  for  that  work  begins  with  the 
soul  as  it  ends  in  the  church. 

There  is  a  growing  disposition  to  praise  mission- 
aries for  the  philanthropic  or  at  least  civilizing  results 
of  their  labor.     I  have  conversed  with  prominent  Eu- 

39 


INTRODUCTION  TO   FOREIGN   MISSIONS 

ropean  and  American  officials  in  Asia,  who  have  been 
forced  by  facts  to  abandon  the  attitude  of  opposition 
or  contempt  taken  towards  missions  a  generation  ago. 
They  value  and  praise  missionaries  as  the  forerunners 
of  civilization.  Instead  of  ridiculing,  they  patronize 
missions.  I  suppose  Some  do  this  because  it  has  been 
discovered  that  the  missionary  creates  a  native  demand 
for  foreign  goods.  He  is  regarded  as  a  cheap  ad- 
vertising agency  by  those  who  wish  to  introduce  rail- 
roads and  manufactures  into  any  part  of  Asia.  If 
every  missionary  in  the  South  Seas  creates  on  an 
average  a  trade  of  $50,000  a  year,  how  much  will  be 
created  by  a  mission  in  China  or  Japan?  What  is  the 
value  to  trade  of  the  whole  mission  enterprises?  But 
the  praise  and  the  blame  of  such  fall  alike  short  of 
the  mark.  Something  of  the  soul,  something  of  the 
church,  something  of  Christ  has  touched  the  heart 
of  every  true  missionary,  to  kindle  his  sympathies  and 
desires  to  one  supreme  passion.  It  is  not  in  the  phi- 
lanthropic, but  in  the  theanthropic  realm  that  we  must 
search  for  the  great  moving  principle. 

The  mission  motive  is  not  to  be  found  in  the  desire 
for  reactionary  benefit  to  the  church  at  home.  It  is 
pleasant  to  learn  "  what  we  get  for  what  we  give/* 
and  to  discover  the  reflex  advantages  of  generosity. 
It  is  instructive  to  see  how  surely  the  church  that 
would  live  only  for  itself  dies,  and  to  learn  that  if  it 
would  keep  its  life  it  must  give  out  its  hfe.  But  I 
have  never  known  a  man  to  be  drawn  to  the  mission 
field  by  such  a  motive,  or  any  mission  society  to  be 
founded  mainly  for  the  purpose  of  keeping  alive  a 
dying  church  at  home. 

My  intercourse  with  missionaries  of  all  kinds  in 
all  countries  has  convinced  me  of  the  great  diversity 
of  their  motives.     They  vary  according  to  tempera- 

40 


THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  MISSIONS 

ment,  training,  theology,  environment.  Christ  does 
not  banish  individuality.  He  cherishes  and  empha- 
sizes it.  Men's  mission  experiences  differ  as  much 
as  their  religious  experiences.  They  come  to  Christ 
from  different  motives,  they  go  out  on  his  work  with 
different   motives. 

An  age  peculiarly  sensitive  to  the  other  world  and 
its  retributions  may  find  its  mission  spirit  first  stimu- 
lated by  terrible  apprehensions  for  the  future  of  the 
heathen.  A  humanitarian  age,  full  of  sentiment  and 
feeling,  will  be  deeply  moved  to  secure  their  pres- 
ent spiritual  welfare.  When  men  come  to  distrust 
their  own  reasonings  and  feelings  alike,  and  every 
argument  is  a  matter  of  question,  a  loyal  church  will 
simply  lean  back  ©n  the  command  of  its  Lord.  As 
the  work  proceeds  and  the  church  is  thrilled  with 
the  vision  of  Christ  and  his  spreading  kingdom,  it 
will  more  and  more  do  all  things  for  the  glory  of  God. 
In  general,  when  theology  emphasizes  the  sovereignty 
of  God,  with  legal  and  governmental  relations  and 
retributive  awards,  the  whole  trend  of  feeling  and 
motive  must  be  very  different  from  what  we  shall 
find  when  the  emphasis  is  placed  on  the  paternity  of 
God,  with  personal  relations,  ethical  values,  and  spir- 
itual consequences. 

There  are  motives  that  look  Godward  and  motives 
that  look  manward.  Godward  motives  are  gratitude 
for  his  saving  grace,  obedience  to  his  command,  loy- 
alty to  his  purpose,  love  for  his  person,  sympathy  with 
his  plan,  zeal  for  his  glory.  Manward  motives  are 
gratitude  for  the  conversion  of  our  ancestors  by  mis- 
sions, compassion  for  the  condition  of  the  heathen, 
educational  and  philanthropic  zeal,  and  brotherly  love 
for  them  as  individuals  and  classes. 

Yet  no  one  of  these  many  motives,  efficient  as  each 
41 


INTRODUCTION   TO   FOREIGN   MISSIONS 

may  be,  is  really  sufficient  for  the  whole  burden  of 
the  work.  They  are  but  varied  manifestations  of  the 
one  supreme  motive  which  is  the  source  common  to 
them  all.  That  source,  the  motive  of  all  motives,  is 
the  great  theanthropic  impulse  that  is  born  of  contact 
with  Christ.  There  is  an  inherent  expansiveness  in 
the  gospel,  a  latent  universality  which  puts  its  impul- 
sion upon  every  faculty  of  the  soul  or  church  that  it 
enlivens.  It  masters  and  sends  them  forth,  not  pri- 
marily by  its  appeal  to  reason  or  sentiment,  but  by 
the  simple  communication  of  its  own  outflowing  vital- 
ity. The  main  source  of  missions  then  is  not,  strictly 
speaking,  in  any  motive  at  all,  but  in  a  motor,  in 
Christ  himself  as  author,  operator,  and  energizer  of 
all  divine  vitalities  and  activities.  Christ  is  the  one 
motive  power.  He  moves  within  us  and  moves  us. 
He  draws  us  into  his  life  and  bears  us  forth  in  the 
outflowings  of  his  heart.  He  is  the  originator  of  all 
our  regenerate  activities,  the  director  of  all  our  opera- 
tions, Author  and  Finisher  of  our  work  as  well  as  of 
our  faith.  We  can  simply  work  out  what  God  works 
into  us  of  himself.  ^'  I  have  but  one  passion,"  said 
Count  Zinzendorf,  the  head  of  the  Moravian  Church 
—  "I  have  but  one  passion,  and  that  is  He,  only  He." 
Just  as  Paul,  the  Missionary,  had  said  before  him, 
"  For  me  to  live  is  Christ."  Both  passion  and  action 
are  Christ. 

All  other  motives  then  are  derivative  and  variable, 
roused  to  activity  only  by  the  Master's  touch.  It  is 
as  of  old  with  Elisha  and  the  child.  As  the  prophet 
stretched  himself  out  on  the  body  of  the  dead  boy, 
mouth  to  mouth,  eyes  to  eyes,  hands  to  hands,  so 
Christ  lays  himself  upon  the  whole  being  of  man  and, 
by  this  vital  contact  with  every  part,  he  kindles  life 
and  movement  in  the  whole.     Nothing  less  than  this 

42 


THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  MISSIONS 

impact  of  Christ  upon  the  entire  being  with  the  pres- 
sure of  his  mission  purpose  can  explain  the  strangely- 
diversified  sentiments  which  actuate  mission  men  and 
societies  at  different  periods  and  among  different 
classes.  Not  the  command  of  Christ,  not  the  love 
of  Christ,  not  the  glory  of  God,  not  the  peril,  or  guilt, 
or  possibilities  of  souls,  no  one  of  these  alone  is  the 
great  constraining  force,  but  Christ  himself  in  the 
fulness  of  his  being.  It  is  the  expansive  Divine  Life 
that  moves  us  in  all  its  rich  diversity. 

Trace  back  the  history  of  any  mission  epoch  to  its 
source;  you  will  find  that  it  starts  simply  in  some 
fresh  -religious  experience,  the  instinctive  outcome  of 
which,  unless  hindered  by  special  causes,  must  always 
be  a  longing  for  the  expansion  of  Christ's  kingdom. 
In  beautiful  agreement  with  these  experiences  of  the 
past  is  the  account  given  by  Principal  Moule  of  Cam- 
bridge, England,  of  the  meetings  of  Studd,  Stanley, 
Smith,  and  others,  just  before  starting  for  China  with 
the  university  men.  He  writes :  "  A  very  large  part 
of  the  visit  of  the  young  men  was  spent  in  addressing 
their  fellow-students  —  not  specially  on  mission  work, 
but  on  devotedness  to  Christ.  In  meeting  after  meet- 
ing we  had  nothing  of  missionary  appeal  before  us, 
except  the  very  eloquent  appeal  of  the  presence  of 
those  who  were  just  to  go  out  to  the  ends  of  the 
earth  for  the  Lord.  The  point  they  pressed  on  the 
meetings  was  this :  '  Are  you  really  ready  to  serve 
him  anywhere?  Have  you  given  heart  and  soul  to 
him?  Have  you  given  yourself  to  him,  with  all  you 
are  and  all  you  have,  to  be  his  instrument,  to  be  his 
tool,  to  be  what  he  pleases  you  to  be  and  to  do  ? ' 
This  resulted  first  in  a  meeting  where  perhaps  200 
university  men  were  present  to  hear  two  Church  Mis- 
sionary Society  secretaries  give  mission  information. 

43 


INTRODUCTION   TO   FOREIGN    MISSIONS 

The  further  results  are  such  an  increase  of  men  from 
Cambridge,  planning  to  go  out  as  missionaries,  as 
was  never  known  before." 

This  answer  to  the  question.  What  is  the  mission 
motive?  brings  us  naturally  to  our  fourth  question, 
and  one  of  great  practical  importance,  viz.,  What  con- 
stitutes the  mission  calif  We  have  seen  how  the  call 
comes  to  the  church  through  a  renewal  of  life  within 
and  an  enlargement  of  opportunity  without.  I  do 
not  know  that  the  call  to  the  individual  is  very  dif- 
ferent. There  are  two  parts  to  it,  first  the  call  to 
Christ,  then  the  call  to  his  work.  It  was  in  the  very 
same  day  and  place  that  he  said :  "  Ask  of  me  and 
I  will  give  thee  living  water  to  drink,"  and  "  Lift  up 
your  eyes  and  look  on  the  fields  that  they  are  white 
already  unto  harvest." 

There  is  but  one  response  to  be  made  —  Consecra- 
tion. Surrender  the  will.  The  rest  is  only  matter  of 
judgment,  according  to  providential  indications.  Men 
have  forced  their  way  into  the  mission  field  against 
almost  every  possible  obstacle.  This  was  the  expe- 
rience of  Carey  and  many  other  pioneers.  Others 
have  been  led  along  by  providential  appointment  where 
every  step  was  taken  against  their  own  preference, 
until  at  last  they  found  themselves  set  down  in  mission 
work. 

God  deals  with  men  as  individuals,  and  most  di- 
versely. There  are  calls  and  calls  —  some  that  are 
special,  and  some  that  are  general.  There  are  calls 
contained  in  repulses,  and  tests  contained  in  invita- 
tions. Sometimes  the  soul  breaks  through  barriers 
to  respond  to  the  inner  voice  that  leads  it  on.  Some- 
times outward  providences  push  on  a  reluctant  or 
doubtful  servant.  Sometimes  the  call  consists  of  the 
simple   presentation   of   facts   to  the   mind   and   con- 

44 


THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  MISSIONS 

science,  which,  when  calmly  weighed,  seem  important 
enough  to  decide  the  choice  of  the  will  and  the  work 
of  the  lifetime.  The  mission  field  is  then  entered  with 
precisely  the  same  calm  business  spirit  as  that  with 
which  another  would  enter  a  mercantile  employment, 
only  it  is  done  in  the  service  of  the  King.  God  calls 
men  through  the  reason  as  well  as  through  conscience 
and  providence  and  the  Holy  Spirit. 

It  should  be  borne  in  mind,  however,  that  the  num- 
ber of  those  to  whom  the  mission  call  is  addressed  is 
and  must  be  but  a  very  small  part  even  of  those  who 
enter  the  home  ministry.  Circumstances,  duties,  and 
disqualifications  of  one  kind  and  another  make  it 
plain  to  far  the  greater  number  that  they  cannot  go. 
To  those,  therefore,  who  can  go,  and  are  in  any  way 
fit  to  go,  the  call  for  more  men  must  come  with  ten- 
fold force. 

To  the  few  who  are  at  once  able  and  willing  to  go 
there  may  come  many  a  conflict  before  the  matter  is 
decided.  There  is  room  and  demand  for  a  greater  vari- 
ety of  talent  abroad,  far  greater  than  in  the  ministry 
at  home.  But  it  is  the  very  best  men  who  are  most 
wanted.  The  call  is  rather  for  more  man  than  more 
men,  and  for  the  whole  man.  We  want  the  men  who 
can  become  evangelists  of  nations,  heads  of  schools, 
fathers  and  bishops  of  churches,  founders  of  institu- 
tions, creators  of  literature,  leaders  in  all  things. 
At  their  touch  the  kingdom  of  God  is  to  spring  forth. 
Those  are  precisely  the  men  who  are  most  called  for 
at  home,  though  seldom  with  so  great  ultimate  prom- 
ise as  abroad.  They  will  encounter  many  seeming 
indications  of  providence  bidding  them  stay.  The 
home  church  is  here  to  speak  for  itself,  and  it  will 
often  speak  very  loudly.  Important  positions  may  be 
offered  where  much  seems  to  depend  on  securing  a 

45 


INTRODUCTION   TO   FOREIGN   MISSIONS 

particular  man.  The  demands  of  home  and  friends 
will  increase.  But  through  all  the  clamor  of  these 
nearer  claims  the  one  who  is  called  of  God  may  hear 
a  still  small  voice,  as  from  a  far  distant  shore,  whis- 
pering, "  Follow  thou  me." 

Sometimes  he  must  even  go  in  the  very  teeth  of 
providence,  yet  this  may  be  only  the  testing  of  his 
purpose.  There  are  just  now  some  men  inclined  to 
the  mission  field  who  hold  back  because  they  fear  that 
for  one  reason  and  another  they  may  not  be  accepted. 
This,  too,  is  a  testing  of  obedience.  I  beseech  you 
not  to  be  deterred  by  this  preliminary  obstacle. 
Will  you  not  pray  and  pray  until  the  inclination 
I  grows  to  a  purpose  and  an  enthusiasm?  Will  you 
not  commune  with  God  until  light  and  strength 
'come?  Then  will  you  not  present  yourselves  to  the 
JBoard?  If  the  door  is  closed  you  have  done  no  more 
'ithan  your  duty.  The  importunity  of  quenchless  en- 
jthusiasm  is  what  has  opened  heavier  doors  than  ever 
closed  before  you.  God  rules  and  overrules,  and  the 
Ivery  damming  up  of  the  waters  may  prepare  for  a 
'greater  flood  at  last  that  shall  sweep  all  obstructions 
away. 

■  But  two  further  subjects  remain  to  be  considered 
by  one  who  may  be  pondering  the  mission  calls :  What 
is  fitness  for  mission  work?  What  the  fitting  for  it? 
■The  qualifications  are  spiritual,  physical,  mental,  and 
social. 

'  In  naming  consecration  first,  I  mean  not  simply 
the  act  of  self-devotion  to  the  mission  work.  It  is 
"possible  that  one  lofty  act  of  self-consecration  might 
bring  a  very  unconsecrated  person  to  the  mission  field, 
and  that,  having  nobly  come,  he  might  yet  ignobly 
fall  before  the  temptations  that  beset  him.  What  I 
mean  is  the  spirit  of  consecration  which  pervades  the 


THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  MISSIONS 

life,  and  has  grown  into  habit  and  character.  Neces- 
sary as  this  is  in  all  of  Christ's  work,  it  is,  if  possible, 
even  more  indispensable  in  those  who  are  to  be,  like 
the  apostles  of  old,  the  primal  sources  of  the  spiritual 
life  of  whole  peoples  and  great  churches.  Let  not 
any  one  think  that  the  very  grandeur  of  the  work  will 
exalt  and  sanctify  an  unconsecrated  person.  I  have 
seen  instances  of  this,  but  it  left  bitter  regrets  for  early 
misspent  mission  years.  And  I  have  seen  the  reverse, 
where  the  noble  calling  had  been  desecrated  by  sec- 
ular, selfish  minds.  "  Spiritual  agents  for  spiritual 
work  "  is  the  first  qualification  to  be  laid  down  by 
every  missionary  society. 

The  confidential  instructions  of  the  China  Inland 
Mission  have  the  following  words  on  "  Counting  the 
Cost " :  "  Candidates  must  be  prepared  to  live  lives  of 
privation,  of  toil,  of  loneliness,  of  danger ;  to  be  looked 
down  upon  by  their  own  countrymen,  and  to  be  de- 
spised by  the  Chinese;  to  live  in  the  interior  far  from 
the  comforts  of  European  society  and  protection. 
They  will  need  to  trust  God,  as  able  to  meet  their 
needs  in  sickness  as  well  as  in  health,  as  it  will  usually 
be  impossible  to  have  recourse  to  the  aid  of  European 
physicians.  But,  if  faithful  servants,  they  will  find  in 
Christ  and  in  his  Word  a  fulness,  a  meetness,  a  pre- 
ciousness,  a  joy  and  strength  that  will  far  outweigh 
all  they  have  sacrificed  for  him."  Much  that  is  said 
here  applies  to  only  a  part  of  our  missions.  But  the 
principle  of  counting  the  cost  and  of  complete  conse- 
cration applies  everywhere. 

With  all  these  there  should  be  no  marked  defects  of 
character,  such  as  extravagance,  or  impatience,  or 
quarrelsomeness,  or  wilfulness.  Defects  which  are 
seen  to  be  merely  personal  here  will  often  be  put  down 
there  to  the  fault  of  Christianity. 

47 


INTRODUCTION   TO   FOREIGN    MISSIONS 

Next  comes  the  physical  qualification  of  health. 
Mission  fields  vary  greatly  in  their  climatic  influences, 
some  diminishing,  others  aggravating,  bodily  ailments 
felt  at  home,  while  they  often  create  new  difficulties. 
Vitality  and  powers  of  endurance  are  indispensable. 
No  candidate  should  be  finally  accepted  without  a  cer- 
tificate from  a  disinterested  medical  man,  not  his  family 
physician  or  chosen  by  him,  but  appointed  by  the  com- 
mittee, stating  that  his  constitution  and  state  of  health 
are  suitable  to  the  duties  of  a  missionary  in  the  particu- 
lar field  for  which  he  is  destined.  The  same  certificate 
should  be  required  for  the  wife  or  children.  It  is  the 
picked  men  who  are  wanted,  as  for  an  Arctic  expedition. 
I  have  known  a  few  sad  experiences,  where  men  have 
arrived  on  the  field  physically  unfit  for  the  work  they 
were  about  to  undertake.  After  one  or  two  or  three 
years  of  unavailing  struggles  they  have  been  forced 
to  return  home,  time  and  money  wasted,  their  hearts 
distressed,  their  places  vacant,  their  work  undone,  they 
themselves  disconnected,  cut  off  from  opportunities  for 
future  usefulness.  Some  wear  themselves  out  in  the 
first  few  years  of  getting  ready  for  work. 

Among  mental  qualifications  comes,  first,  common- 
sense,  absolutely  demanded  both  in  itself  and  as  the 
parent  of  so  many  other  qualities.  It  brings  self- 
knowledge  and  knowledge  of  others,  self-control  and 
control  of  others.  It  brings  the  power  of  adapting 
one's  self  to  new  relations  and  conditions,  which  is 
required  in  the  missionary  as  in  no  other.  Piety  alone 
may  not  fit  a  man  to  work  either  with  his  brethren  or 
with  the  natives;  but  if  common-sense  be  added  he 
will  have  little  trouble.  At  home  so  much  common- 
sense  has  been  organized  into  custom  that  we  are  all 
largely  supported  by  the  general  fund,  and  some  men 
get  along  with  a  very  slender  stock  of  their  own.    But 


THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  MISSIONS 

on  the  mission  field,  where  Christian  custom  is  yet  in 
the  making,  the  drafts  on  common-sense  would  soon 
overdraw  a  small  account. 

Linguistic  talent  is  one  of  the  self-evident  require- 
ments. I  have  known  missionaries  who,  after  years  of 
labor,  could  hardly  construct  one  correct  sentence  in 
the  vernacular.  They  were  good  missionaries,  too. 
Yet  I  think  they  would  have  served  better  at  home. 
But  important  as  is  facility  in  acquiring  a  language, 
it  is  not  so  important  as  tenacity  in  holding  it.  To 
be  sure  and  persistent  in  this  case  is  more  essential 
than  to  be  quick. 

A  full  academic  and  theologic  training  is  desirable. 
I  cannot  say  that  it  is  indispensable,  for  there  have 
been  great  missionaries  who  have  had  little  training 
and  have  been  mostly  self-taught.  Yet  in  studying 
the  growth  of  mission  societies,  especially  in  Ger- 
many, such  as  the  Berlin,  the  Gossner,  the  Basel  so- 
cieties, one  is  struck  by  the  frequency  with  which  such 
societies  begin  with  the  principle  of  sending  out  un- 
trained men,  and  the  certainty  with  which,  as  they 
gain  experience,  they  make  increased  demands  for  edu- 
cated candidates,  until  now  the  requirements  of  all 
except  the  newest  enterprises  are  pretty  much  the 
same.  The  opportunities  for  self-development  which 
corrie  to  the  minister  at  home  are  largely  wanting  to 
the  missionary.  He  must  be  prepared  to  cope  with 
the  keenest  intelligence  of  subtle  heathenism ;  he  must 
gain  not  only  respect  but  influence  among  his  Euro- 
pean fellow-residents;  he  must  be  ready  to  teach  as 
well  as  preach,  and  in  almost  any  branch.  There  are 
few  who  take  this  up  as  a  life-work  and  are  other- 
wise qualified,  who  would  not  find  their  usefulness  far 
more  enhanced  by  the  added  training  than  harmed  by 
the  delay  of  a  few  years  in  the  beginning.     And  to 

49 


INTRODUCTION   TO    FOREIGN    MISSIONS 

many  a  wondrous  quickening  of  talent  comes  from  the 
mission  enthusiasm.  I  have  known  a  marvellous  de- 
velopment in  the  musical  ability  and  in  acquiring  lan- 
guages as  the  result  of  this  enthusiasm. 

As  the  centre  of  all  social  requirements  we  may  sim- 
ply name  love.  Piety  and  common-sense  will  enable  a 
man  to  get  along  with  men,  but  they  will  not  give  him 
great  power  over  them.  He  must  love,  not  as  a 
duty,  but  as  an  instinct  and  a  passion.  It  should  be 
love  to  the  brethren,  love  to  the  natives,  love  to  the 
heathen.  No  one  can  know  what  that  means  until  he 
has  been  on  the  field  and  lived  among  the  natives, 
whether  Christian  or  heathen.  That  simple,  genial, 
outflowing  love  will  be  the  source  of  a  power  greater 
than  any  he  wills  or  knows.  It  will  be  the  secret  of 
a  beautiful  character,  and  will  win  men  to  Christ  be- 
cause they  have  seen  Christ  in  his  servant. 

I  will  name  one  more  indispensable  qualification. 
It  is  that  the  one  who  goes  out  as  missionary  should 
be  sound  and  strong  in  the  faith.  By  soundness  I 
mean  something  equally  removed  from  doubt  and  dog- 
matism, something  neither  defective  nor  protuberant, 
the  clear  discernment  and  ready  acceptance  of  the  fun- 
damental, living,  working,  practical  doctrines  and 
principles  of  Christianity  as  taught  by  Christ  and  the 
apostles.  A  shaky  theology,  one  cut  off  from  the  main 
line  of  doctrinal  development,  out  of  tune  with  one's 
time,  representing  only  individual,  accidental,  or  pro- 
vincial peculiarities,  would  be  a  poor  tool  for  the 
founding  of  Christ's  kingdom  in  Asia  —  a  far  greater 
hindrance  to  usefulness,  I  am  convinced,  there  than 
in  America.  Were  I  in  any  way  to  have  part  in  the 
examination  of  candidates  for  both  missionary  and 
pastoral  service,  acting  with  my  present  light,  I  should 
be  far  more  critical  and  exacting,  far  less  yielding  to 

50 


THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  MISSIONS 

eccentricity  and  immaturity  in  the  case  of  the  mission- 
ary than  of  the  pastor.  It  has  been  the  study  of  the 
work  on  the  ground  which  has  brought  me  to  this 
conviction.  The  pastor  at  home  has  but  to  continue 
a  work  already  begun,  administering  the  legacy  of 
the  past.  He  is  surrounded,  instructed,  corrected  by 
the  pervading  sentiments  of  Christian  communities. 
Abroad  it  is  different.  The  missionary  is  the  founder 
and  master-builder  of  the  native  church.  It  takes  the 
tone  of  its  Christian  life,  its  interpretation  of  Scrip- 
ture, the  color  of  its  theology  from  him,  and  much 
which  might  be  a  harmless  deviation  at  home  because 
counteracted  on  every  side,  and  discerned  in  its  true 
nature  and  results,  may  prove  a  germ  of  mischief  and 
dissension  abroad.  It  is  the  peculiar,  original,  and 
pivotal  position  of  the  missionary  that  brings  his  need 
of  special  soundness  in  the  faith. 

There  is  yet  another  reason  why  I  should  be  more 
exacting  in  the  examination  of  the  missionary  than  of 
the  pastor.  The  latter  is  subject  not  only  to  the  scru- 
tiny and  criticism  and  advice  of  his  brethren,  but  to 
the  withdrawal  of  their  fellowship  in  his  association, 
or  at  a  council  upon  a  change  of  location.  But  when 
the  missionary  is  once  on  the  field  it  is  most  important 
that  he  should  be  left  to  free,  untrammelled  develop- 
ment of  his  faith.  If  he  have  proved  himself  thor- 
oughly rooted  and  grounded  in  the  gospel,  sound  in 
faith  and  in  the  judgment,  he  can  be  trusted  to  en- 
counter the  subtle  philosophies  of  the  East,  and  to 
shape  the  theological  thought  of  the  new  church. 

By  being  strong  in  the  faith  I  mean  more  than  I 
can  begin  to  say  here.  The  missionary  needs  to  have 
such  a  firm  grip  on  the  central  truths  of  Christianity 
that,  even  should  he  experience  a  change  in  his  views 
on  outlying  doctrines,  he  cannot  be  moved  from  the 

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INTRODUCTION   TO    FOREIGN    MISSIONS 

centre,  holding  that  so  strongly  that  no  wavering  at 
the  circumference  will  shake  him.  He  must  be  strong, 
not  only  to  defend  the  faith,  but  to  establish  it,  impart 
it,  and  use  it;  strong  enough  in  it  to  hold  its  essence 
under  every  new  form,  to  keep  the  same  firm  grasp 
upon  it,  though  it  assume  Protean  shapes  within  his 
hands.  He  needs  to  be  one  capable  of  seeing  the 
deep  meaning  in  the  remark  of  Rothe,  that  there  is 
nothing  more  changeable  than  Christianity,  but  that 
in  this  lies  not  its  weakness  but  its  strength.  More 
than  other  men  he  needs  to  distinguish  between  the 
essential  and  the  incidental,  the  transient,  the  histor- 
ical, and  the  eternal  in  Christianity;  more  than  others 
he  needs  to  know  the  true  proportion  of  faith.  Pre- 
senting it  on  the  historic  basis,  and  in  the  historic 
development  which  belongs  to  himself  as  a  European, 
an  American,  a  New-Englander,  perhaps,  he  must  yet 
present  it  in  such  way  as  not  to  fetter  but  to  stimulate 
the  native  mind,  so  that  from  the  start,  being  rightly 
founded,  it  may  find  its  natural  Asiatic  development, 
according  to  the  traits  of  the  Chinese  or  Indian  mind, 
rather  than  be  forever  bound  to  the  one-sided  peculiar- 
ities of  occidental  thinking. 

To  sum  up :  The  faith  of  the  missionary  should  be  a 
sound  faith,  having  in  itself  the  promise  of  life  and 
healthy  development;  a  positive  faith,  not  distrusting 
and  consuming  itself,  but  aggressive  and  dominant  in 
its  hold  upon  others,  persuasive  of  their  minds,  and 
constructive  of  both  character  and  faith  for  the  new 
church.  It  should  be  a  deep  faith,  laying  hold  upon 
God;  a  Biblical  faith,  resting  on  the  foundation  of 
Jesus  Christ  and  his  apostles;  a  broad  faith,  compre- 
hensive enough  to  include  Asiatic  as  well  as  European 
schools  of  theology ;  a  simple  faith,  suited  to  the  intel- 
ligence of  a  strange  people  and  an  infant  church;  a 

52 


THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  MISSIONS 

reverent  faith,  not  dogmatizing  beyond  the  limits  of 
Revelation;  and  a  well-proportioned  faith,  placing 
main  emphasis  upon  the  central  and  fundamental  fea- 
tures of  the  gospel,  not  carried  away  by  any  theo- 
logical caprice  or  phantasy. 

A  sound  body,  a  trained  mind,  linguistic  talent,  and 
common-sense,  a  rounded  character  and  a  loving  heart, 
clear,  firm  faith,  and  consecrated  piety  —  these  con- 
stitute fitness  for  the  mission  work.  There  are  degrees 
in  them  all,  but  I  am  happy  to  say  that  I  have  found 
on  the  whole  a  large  fulfilment  of  these  demands 
among  the  missionaries  I  have  met. 

Last  of  all,  how  shall  one  who  is  in  some  degree  fit 
be  specially  fitted  for  the  mission  work?  The  Euro- 
pean answer  to  that  is  different  from  the  American. 
At  Berlin  and  at  Basel,  at  Islington,  London,  and  at 
Canterbury,  as  well  as  in  other  places,  there  are  large 
missionary  colleges  where  young  men  are  taken  even 
in  the  beginning  of  their  studies  and  trained  for  the 
mission  work.  This  practice,  however,  has  sprung, 
not  from  preference,  but  from  necessity.  In  Germany 
and  England  alike  the  number  of  university  men  who 
have  entered  into  the  mission  work  has  been  extremely 
small.  From  Cambridge,  England,  only  one  mission- 
ary went  forth  before  the  year  1836,  and  that  was  in 
the  year  181 5.  The  only  way  to  supply  missionaries 
at  all  was  to  train  them  in  a  special  institution.  This 
has  brought  the  question  of  missionary  instruction  to 
the  front.  But  after  some  personal  observation  I  am  led 
to  believe  that  the  instruction  given  at  these  missionary 
seminaries  is  essentially  the  same  as  that  given  in  our 
seminaries,  only  not  so  extended  and  not  so  good.  If 
men  of  academic  training  can  be  secured,  and  that  is 
happily  the  case  in  this  country  —  where  from  the  time 
of  Nott  and  Judson  and  Mills  up  to  these  days  of 


INTRODUCTION    TO    FOREIGN    MISSIONS 

Forman  and  Wilder  the  colleges  have  been  originators 
of  mission  societies  and  movements  —  then  there  need 
be  little  difference  in  the  general  training  of  mission- 
aries and  pastors. 

Yet  the  choice  of  such  a  vocation  early  in  one's 
course  will  lead  a  student  to  place  special  emphasis  all 
the  way  through  on  whatever  lies  in  the  lines  of  his 
work.  In  his  exegesis  the  mission  purpose  of  the 
Bible  will  shine  out  brighter  to  him  than  to  others. 
In  church  history  he  will  bestow  especial  attention 
upon  the  expansion  of  the  church,  its  relation  to  pagan 
systems,  its  organization  in  different  lands.  In  apolo- 
getics he  will  ever  be  asking  himself  how  to  adapt  the 
evidences  of  Christianity  to  the  peculiarities  of  Bud- 
dhist, Hindu,  or  Mohammedan  minds.  The  compara- 
tive study  of  religions  in  both  their  history  and  their 
philosophy  will  enable  him  to  judge  how  apologetics 
should  be  recast  for  such  purposes. 

In  the  study  of  dogmatics  I  think  the  one  who  is  to 
be  a  missionary  will  feel  a  little  more  strongly  for  that 
reason  the  need  of  clearness  and  largeness  of  view. 
He  will  distinguish  a  little  more  carefully  between  the 
essential  and  the  accidental  in  our  faith,  the  local  and 
the  universal,  while  he  will  ask  that  somewhere  and 
somehow  the  science  of  missions  shall  be  opened  up  to 
him  and  to  his  coadjutors,  on  whose  home  support  he 
must  count.  Geography  and  travel  will  become  practi- 
cal and  sacred  studies  for  his  leisure  hours,  sociology 
will  prepare  him  to  understand  the  structure  of  the 
strange  societies  and  civilizations  which  will  confront 
him,  and  mission  biographies  and  reports  will  mean 
more  to  him  than  to  any  one  else.  Thus  he  will  have, 
not  so  much  different  studies,  as  different  meanings 
in  the  same  studies.  If  to  these  he  can  add  a  course 
of  medical  lectures,  unless  he  goes  to  Japan,  and  the 

54 


THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  MISSIONS 

study  of  Sanskrit  or  Arabic  if  he  is  to  go  to  India  or 
among  Mohammedans,  and  a  fair  knowledge  of  sacred 
music,  he  will  do  well.  Some  experience  in  teaching 
is  well ;  also  an  acquaintance  with  tools  for  mechanical 
and  industrial  employments.  Nothing  of  that  sort  will 
come  amiss. 

It  would  be  extremely  valuable  to  him  if  he  could 
take  some  time  to  study  the  history,  organization  and 
methods  of  leading  churches  and  societies  in  America 
and  Europe.  He  is  to  be  an  organizer  both  of  mission 
work  and  of  churches.  How  full  of  instruction  would 
he  find  the  study  on  the  ground  of  the  organization  of 
the  Presbyterian  churches  in  Scotland,  or  the  compari- 
son of  the  methods  of  the  London  Missionary  Society 
and  the  Church  Missionary  Society  with  one  another 
and  with  those  of  American  societies!  Or  some  ex- 
perience of  the  great  evangelistic  work  of  cities,  such 
as  New  York  and  London,  would  show  him  how  hea- 
thenism at  home  is  being  dealt  with.  The  bitter  cry 
of  outcast  London,  the  needs  of  the  submerged  tenth, 
would  quicken  his  care  for  the  more  bitter  needs  of 
heathendom,  the  unemerged  whole. 


55 


Ill 

THE  DEPARTMENTS  OF  MISSIONARY  WORK 
IN  THEIR  VARIETY 

The  variety  of  work  on  the  mission  field  is  one  of 
the  surprises  which  await  the  visitor  and  the  beginner. 

First  in  our  expectation,  though  not  always  first 
either  for  the  mission  or  any  missionary,  is  evangeliza- 
tion. The  seed  must  be  sown  far  and  wide;  next  a 
few  converts  may  be  hoped  for ;  then  come  the  congre- 
gation and  the  church.  It  is  a  happy  thing  for  a 
young  missionary  if,  after  a  year  or  two  of  hard  study 
of  the  language,  he  is  permitted,  in  company  with 
some  veteran,  to  enter  on  that  great  work.  Evangel- 
ization is  the  proclamation  of  the  gospel.  Confucius 
says,  "  The  philosopher  need  not  go  about  to  proclaim 
his  doctrines;  if  he  has  truth  the  people  will  come  to 
him."  Jesus  says,  "  Go  out  into  all  the  world  and 
preach  the  gospel." 

Evangelism  may  be  either  localized  or  itinerant.  In 
the  former  case  the  proclamation  is  made  within  easy 
reach  of  the  mission-house,  and  centres  about  a  church. 
In  the  latter  case  it  is  made  while  travelling  for  that 
purpose,  whether  slowly  or  rapidly.  The  important 
features  connected  with  either  of  these  forms  are  six 
in  number :  the  facilities  for  travelling ;  the  place  for 
preaching;  the  auxiliaries  employed;  the  persons 
speaking;  the  classes  addressed;  the  argument  and 
persuasion  employed. 

I  would  I  could  sketch  the  picture  of  the  evangelists 
S6 


THE  DEPARTMENTS   IN   THEIR  VARIETY 

of  the  gospel  as  in  various  lands  I  have  seen  them  sea- 
ting forth  upon  their  tours.  There  are  railroads  for 
them  in  Japan  and  India,  where  they,  perhaps,  ride 
third-class  with  the  natives.  The  iron  horse  is  push- 
ing along  in  Turkey,  and,  like  a  fabled  camel,  has  his 
nose  thrust  into  the  Chinese  tent  for  the  space  of  a 
few  hundred  miles.  All  along  the  Chinese  coast  and 
1200  miles  up  the  Yang-tse  River  steamships  are  ply- 
ing back  and  forth  in  every  direction. 

But  steam  can  seldom  bring  them  to  their  real  itin- 
erating country-field,  so  we  see  them  taking  other 
conveyances.  In  Japan  it  is  the  basha  or  stage,  with 
its  brutal  driver  —  whose  beating-stick  one  finally 
seizes  and  flings  away  —  or  the  light,  skimming,  com- 
ical jinrikisha,  or  Pull-man-car,  with  its  one  or  two 
wiry,  tireless  little  runners,  who  slip  them  along  thirty, 
forty,  or  even  fifty  miles  a  day,  over  excellent  roads, 
to  the  place  of  work.  This  jinrikisha,  the  invention 
of  a  missionary  for  the  comfort  of  his  wife,  after  hav- 
ing spread  all  through  Japan,  is  on  its  victorious  way 
around  the  world.  It  has  swept  along  the  coast  of 
China,  and  intrenched  itself  at  Singapore  and  Penang. 
I  found  a  jinrikisha  company,  limited,  just  under  way 
at  Colombo,  and  have  heard  since  of  the  arrival  of  this 
oriental  bicycle  in  northern  India.  Wherever  in  the 
tropics  coolie  labor  is  common  and  roads  are  fair,  it 
has  a  sure  future.  When  next  I  visit  Egypt  I  expect 
to  find  my  comical  donkey-boys  grasping  the  shafts 
of  the  jinrikisha. 

In  China  men  jolt  over  execrable  roads  in  springless 
mule-carts;  they  bestride  donkeys,  ponies,  or  mules, 
or  they  are  carried  in  a  chair  by  two,  three,  or  four 
shouting  coolies.  One  interesting  figure  that  rises 
before  us  is  Dr.  Nevius,  in  his  far-famed  wheelbarrow. 
"  It  is  unique,"  said  the  doctor  to  Secretary  Seward, 

57 


INTRODUCTION   TO    FOREIGN    MISSIONS 

his  guest.  ''  Yes,  and  will  remain  so,  for  nobody  will 
ever  want  another,"  was  the  reply.  But  the  prophecy 
was  false,  for  there  come  many  requests  for  duplicates. 
On  one  side  of  the  great  central  wheel  sits  the  doctor, 
on  the  other  side  his  native  helper.  Before  them  is  a 
good-sized  box  for  their  books  and  traps,  and  over 
them  a  large  sun-umbrella.  A  coolie  behind  and  an- 
other in  front  hold,  balance,  and  direct  the  barrow, 
while  a  pony  draws  it  up  and  down  through  holes  and 
ruts  and  ditches  and  river-beds,  over  stones  and  logs 
and  obstacles  of  all  sorts,  far  into  the  interior  of  Shan- 
tung province. 

But  the  water-ways  are  best  in  China,  and  on  any 
of  the  great  rivers  and  frequent  canals  we  may  see  the 
missionaries,  often  with  their  families  and  native  serv- 
ants and  helpers,  fitting  up  the  covered  house-boat  as 
a' home,  where  for  weeks  or  even  months  they  sleep, 
cook,  eat,  write,  study,  and  receive  calls,  their  crew 
meanwhile  poling,  rowing,  dragging,  or  sailing  them 
from  one  village  to  another,  as  they  sow  their  seed 
beside  all  waters.  Sometimes  they  have  the  luxury  of 
a  sail-boat,  and  I  have  even  seen  steam-yachts.  But  of 
these  the  Chinese  Government  is  suspicious,  and  they 
may  be  forbidden. 

Across  the  hot  plains  of  India  we  may  see  slowly 
creeping  the  missionary  bandy,  drawn  by  humped, 
straight-horned,  tail-twisted  bullocks,  a  covered  two- 
wheeled  house-cart,  where  one  may  sleep  by  night  on 
mattresses,  as  well  as  ride  by  day  and  night.  Or  it  is 
the  northern  ekka  or  tonga,  horse-drawn,  something 
like  the  Irish  jaunting-car.  In  Turkey  one  is  happy 
if  he  can  mount  a  sure-footed,  hardy  Syrian  horse; 
otherwise  —  unless,  indeed,  like  Dr.  Farnsworth,  he 
have  a  light,  strong  American  wagon  brought  straight 
from  home  —  he  must  ride  in  the  Turkish  araba  or 

58 


THE  DEPARTMENTS   IN   THEIR   VARIETY 

four-wheeler,  drawn  by  horses,  perhaps  driven  by  a 
Mohammedan,  who  during  the  fast  of  Ramazan  will 
neither  eat,  drink,  nor  smoke  from  day's  dawn  to  sun- 
set, but  will  spend  all  the  more  time  by  the  way  in 
feeding  his  horses.  Across  the  plains  of  Bulgaria  the 
missionary  will  ride  in  the  paiton,  or  two-horse  phae- 
ton, introduced  by  the  Russians. 

There  are  charming  little  inns  in  Japan,  with  poor 
food,  bad  smells,  and  a  graceful  hospitality  that  covers 
all  blemishes.  There  are  worse  inns  and  worse  smells, 
with  better  food  and  colder  manners,  in  China.  In 
both  countries  Buddhist  temples  are  sometimes  used, 
as  they  commonly  have  guest-apartments  connected 
with  the  temple.  English-managed  travellers'  bunga- 
lows, with  European  food  and  Hindu  rest-houses,  are 
found  all  over  India,  while  flea-bitten  and  filthy  khans, 
with  fairly  good  food,  abound  in  Turkey.  But  the 
best  thing  of  all,  especially  in  India,  is  the  large  tent, 
which  may  be  pitched  in  a  grove  near  some  central 
village.  As  the  evangelist  may  be  out  for  months,  he 
has  his  whole  family  with  him,  his  books,  his  furni- 
ture, every  provision  for  health  and  work.  "  Day  by 
day  he  sallies  forth  with  the  message  of  peace  on  his 
lips;  he  takes  his  station  on  the  steps  of  some  idol 
temple,  or,  it  may  be,  under  some  spreading  tree;  the 
people  flock  around  and  listen  to  the  word  of  life. 
Partly  from  curiosity,  partly  from  desire  of  informa- 
tion, numbers  of  persons  visit  the  missionary  in  his 
tent,  and  not  infrequently,  sitting  in  the  tent  door, 
he  preaches  to  a  little  knot  of  visitors  with  more  com- 
fort, and,  perhaps,  more  effect,  than  when  he  preached 
in  their  villages.  His  band  of  helpers,  too,  scatters 
itself  about  in  the  adjoining  villages,  and  brings  to 
him  every  day  the  report  of  their  work." 

The  variety  of  platform  from  which  he  speaks  is  as 
59 


INTRODUCTION    TO    FOREIGN    MISSIONS 

great  as  the  variety  of  his  travel  and  housing.  From 
the  fence  of  the  mission-compound  in  Bombay,  sup- 
ported by  a  schoolboy  choir,  he  may  address  a  motley 
crowd  upon  the  sidewalk,  while  the  passing  street-car 
shows  faces  all  agape  with  curiosity  at  the  sight.  In 
the  cool  of  the  morning  in  the  same  city,  without  need 
of  license  from  magistrate  —  for  preaching  of  the  gos- 
pel is  freer  in  Bombay  than  in  Boston  —  he  may  stand 
in  an  open  square  and  proclaim  the  good  news  to  a 
few  score  of  Hindu  coolies,  with  a  sprinkling  of  Mo- 
hammedans, who  interrupt  from  time  to  time,  until  he 
stops  their  mouth  with  a  song.  You  may  see  him 
address  more  docile  Moslems  in  the  vestibule  of  the 
native  church,  or  high-caste  Hindus  in  a  little  upper 
room  of  their  own  dwelling.  In  Calcutta  he  has  an  Eng- 
lish open-air  service  every  Sunday  in  Beadon  Square 
for  educated  Hindus  —  a  service  in  which  you  may  join. 
In  Madras  you  stand  under  a  shed  just  off  the  street, 
and  hear  the  Moslems  addressed  again.  You  go  to 
the  bazaars  or  market-places  and  find,  as  at  Allaha- 
bad, a  Presbyterian  open  chapel,  in  which  and  from 
which  the  thronging  masses  are  daily  reached.  In 
Peking,  Han-kow,  and  Canton  are  scores  of  these 
street  chapels,  where  for  four  or  five  hours  a  day  the 
gospel  is  preached  or  talked  or  sung  by  the  missionary 
or  his  helper.  Merchants  and  laborers  drop  in  for  rest 
or  from  curiosity,  hear  the  news,  and  go  out  again  to 
their  business.  At  Han-kow,  a  great  trade  centre, 
representatives  of  nine  provinces  may  be  seen  at  such 
audiences.  The  great  Indian  melas,  or  religious  festi- 
bals,  where  thousands  and  hundreds  of  thousands  are 
often  gathered  together,  give  a  remarkable  opportun- 
ity for  preaching.  A  crowd  is  drawn  to  any  spot,  leaf- 
lets are  distributed,  songs  sung,  the  difference  between 
Christian  and  Hindu  worship  explained.     In  Japan 

60 


THE  DEPARTMENTS  IN   THEIR  VARIETY 

there  are  great  theatre-meetings,  or  some  Buddhist 
temple  is  opened;  or,  in  Turkey,  perhaps  some  old 
Christian  church.  The  tea-house  becomes  a  chapel 
in  Japan ;  the  rest-house  in  India,  the  khan  in  Turkey. 
Everywhere  private  rooms  of  inquiring  heathen  are 
turned  to  account,  while  many  audiences  are  gathered 
in  the  bustee  or  mohulla,  the  common  enclosure  of  a 
group  of  families.  One  mission  reports  twenty-two 
such  places  in  Delhi,  India. 

You  may  imagine  your  substitute  abroad  talking 
from  his  gospel-boat  to  a  group  of  people  on  the  shore ; 
or  marching  with  his  helpers  through  the  main  street 
of  the  village,  until,  in  the  public  square,  he  has  drawn 
a  crowd  together,  with  whom  he  then  begins  a  conver- 
sation, addressing  the  head  men  first,  perhaps,  with 
questions  and  answers,  until  the  talk  becomes  general. 
My  friend,  who  has  been  but  a  few  months  in  China, 
lunches  with  me  at  an  open  tea-house,  on  the  way  to 
the  Great  Wall.  As  we  finish  our  meal  he  looks 
around  for  a  moment  at  the  group  of  inquisitive  peo- 
ple who  have  pressed  themselves  closely  but  not  rudely 
about  us.  Then  he  mounts  the  stone  seat,  and,  secure 
in  my  ignorance  of  the  language,  gives  his  first  gospel 
talk  to  the  Chinese.  "  You  will  be  near  the  mark," 
writes  one,  "  if  you  imagine  the  gospel-messenger,  in 
a  straw  hat  and  pea-jacket,  sitting  on  a  broken  wall 
—  there  is  always  a  broken  wall  handy  in  a  village  — 
or  on  a  door-step,  or  on  a  form  at  the  front  of  an 
eating-house,  conversing  freely  with  a  score  of  China- 
men, all  of  whom,  perhaps,  bear  some  mark  of  their 
occupation,  while  a  number  of  boys  in  very  scant  cloth- 
ing thrust  themselves  to  the  front,  and  a  few  women 
linger  at  a  distance,  just  beyond  the  range  of  hearing." 

In  fact,  there  is  hardly  a  place,  open  or  covered, 
where  the  proclamation  is  not  made.     House,  tent, 

6i 


INTRODUCTION   TO    FOREIGN    MISSIONS 

shed,  shop,  theatre,  and  temple;  train,  boat,  car,  chair, 
and  saddle ;  tea-house,  inn,  khan,  and  bungalow ;  street, 
square,  field,  lane,  and  grove  —  all  places  are  made  to 
ring  with  the  gospel-call  by  the  helmeted,  coated, 
trousered,  booted,  bearded,  white-faced  European, 
and  American,  everywhere  the  symbol  of  advancing 
power  and  life. 

There  are  various  auxiliaries.  The  Mason  &  Ham- 
lin organ ;  the  baby-organ,  which  can  be  folded  up  and 
carried  under  the  arm ;  the  accordion ;  the  violin,  or 
native  instruments,  wind  and  stringed,  and  drums. 
The  magic-lantern  and  stereopticon  draw  a  crowd  any- 
where. Native  bhajans,  strange  weird  lyrics,  are 
chanted,  whose  echoes  still  linger  in  my  ears.  San- 
key's  songs  are  sung  and  liked  all  round  the  world.  A 
song  tells  its  story  and  wins  its  way  in  all  countries. 
The  native  evangelists  sing  their  effective  kirtans,  or 
musical  recitation  of  some  Bible  story,  accompanied 
and  interrupted  by  their  own  strange  instruments,  and 
varied  by  spoken  appeals  and  applications.  I  have  seen 
Hindus  sit  for  hours  spellbound  by  such  preaching. 
The  head  man  of  a  heathen  village  once  complained  to 
Narayan  Sheshadri  about  his  agent :  "  If  your  people 
do  not  come  at  the  appointed  time  to  sing  and  preach 
to  us,  we  won't  stand  it;  we'll  report  them  to  head- 
quarters." He  was  a  Hindu.  In  China  custom  sanc- 
tions pasting  tracts  on  the  walls  in  conspicuous  places. 
I  do  not  know  whether  a  suit  of  Chinese  clothes  with 
long  pigtail  could  be  counted  an  auxiliary,  but  many 
missionaries  in  the  interior  of  China  find  the  costume 
a  reUef  and  a  help,  even  the  ladies  often  adopting  it. 
It  prevents  much  intrusive  curiosity  on  the  part  of 
those  who  have  never  seen  woollen  goods  or  foreign 
patterns,  and  the  missionary  is  not  so  apt  to  be  inter- 
rupted in  his  discourse  by  a  question  as  to  the  price  of 

62 


THE  DEPARTMENTS  IN   THEIR  VARIETY 

the  cloth  he  wears.  Some,  however,  court  this  very 
curiosity  excited  by  foreign  apparel. 

The  persons  speaking  may  be  foreigners  or  natives. 
The  union  of  the  two  is  best.  Mr.  Jones,  of  Madura, 
has  a  band  of  trained  men  who  divide  the  city  between 
them.  They  spend  an  evening  with  him  in  planning 
their  work;  then  they  sally  forth  in  separate  bands  to 
do  it.  The  European  has  judgment,  experience,  pres- 
tige, and  executive  ability;  the  native  has  the  advan- 
tage of  nativity,  and  is  often  the  more  effective 
speaker;  but  a  novice  in  the  work  will  soon  find  the 
need  of  the  help  of  a  veteran. 

Great  account  should  be  made  of  the  variety  of  per- 
sons addressed.  It  is  not  enough  to  be  prepared,  in 
general,  to  preach  the  gospel  to  the  heathen.  If  Paul 
became  a  Jew  to  the  Jew,  a  Greek  to  the  Greek,  the 
evangelist  is  to  take  care  lest  he  be  a  Jew  to  the  Greek, 
a  Greek  to  the  Jew,  or  a  Chinaman  to  a  Hindu.  The 
gospel  is  not  the  same  thing  to  a  Moslem  and  a  Bud- 
dhist ;  to  a  Pariah  and  a  Brahmin ;  to  the  educated  citi- 
zen and  the  villager.  Adaptiveness  is  the  great  need. 
The  very  words  which  will  carry  conviction  to  the 
heart  of  one  class  will  be  quite  misunderstood  by  an- 
other. The  arguments  by  which  one  is  met  in  the 
country  are  totally  different  from  those  expressed  in 
the  city.  In  the  villages  of  India  the  people  are  mad 
upon  their  idols,  enslaved  by  caste,  worshipping  Brah- 
mins as  deities.  "  The  missionary  is  met,"  says 
Vaughn,  "  by  arguments  which  astound  and  sadden 
him.  It  is  admitted  that  the  gods  were  what  we  call 
vicious  and  corrupt,  but,  being  gods,  they  could  do 
what  they  liked  and  were  accountable  to  no  one,  while 
the  very  prowess  of  their  lusts  made  them  objects  of 
veneration  to  feebler  creatures.  The  wickedness  of 
their  worshippers  is  admitted,  but  either  all  is  maya 

63 


INTRODUCTION   TO   FOREIGN   MISSIONS 

(illusion),  or,  if  there  be  individualities,  it  is  Brahma 
who  moves  within  them,  and  prompts  all  they  think, 
say,  or  do.  In  the  city  all  this  is  changing.  Rational- 
ism is  replacing  this  gross  pantheism,  and  the  presen- 
tation of  Christianity  must  vary  accordingly."  It  is 
important,  therefore,  to  have  men  trained  for  special 
work  with  each  class  —  the  Buddhists  of  Japan,  Con- 
fucianists  of  China,  and  Hindus  of  the  great  cities  — 
while  others  should  fit  themselves  for  the  Mohamme- 
dan controversy.  Here  and  there  one  may  be  found 
able  to  be  all  things  to  all  men.  The  Scudders  are  ex- 
amples of  this  universal  talent.  So  also  was  Cyrus 
Hamlin,  who  wrought  such  wonders  in  the  introduc- 
tion of  new  industries  among  the  Armenians. 

What  methods  of  speech,  argument,  and  inducement 
should  be  used?  Knowledge  of  the  people  must  de- 
cide; of  their  language,  customs,  religions,  and  char- 
acter. It  is  a  common  practice  to  keep  what  is  called 
a  bazaar-book,  in  which  new  words  and  phrases,  apt 
figures,  and  telling  points  are  noted  down.  There  is  a 
growing  agreement  to  avoid  controversy.  But  the  best 
way  to  avoid  it  is  to  be  ready  for  it.  "  I  advise  you 
to  study  the  native  religions,"  said  a  distinguished  In- 
dian missionary  (Stephen  Hislop),  "  not  that  you  may 
set  yourself  to  the  hopeless  task  of  lopping  off  every 
twig  and  branch  of  the  upas-tree  of  error,  which  sheds 
its  baneful  influence  throughout  the  length  and  breadth 
of  the  land,  but  that  you  may  clearly  distinguish  be- 
tween the  branches  and  the  stump,  and  lay  the  axe  at 
the  root  of  the  tree."  But  to  all  such  knowledge  of 
the  evangelist  must  be  added  moral  traits  —  patience, 
good-humor,  a  love  for  fair  play,  above  all,  a  love  for 
souls.  He  will  talk  with  his  hearers,  plead  with  them, 
pierce  their  conscience,  melt  their  hearts,  rather  than 
merely  harangue  them  and  reason  with  them. 

64 


THE  DEPARTMENTS  IN  THEIR  VARIETY 

One  great  question  in  regard  to  evangelization  has 
been,  "  Shall  it  be  diffused  or  concentrated,  far  or 
near,  fast  or  slow,  long  or  short  ?  "  The  tendency  at 
first  has  been  to  *'  long,  rather  aimless  tours,  with 
short  stops,  into  far  distant  regions.  The  visit  to  each 
place  was  rare,  the  work  not  followed  up,  the  fruit 
small."  "  The  itinerating  missionary,"  said  Bishop 
Sargent,  "  is  too  often  like  a  comet,  and  the  villagers 
like  astronomers  watching  for  it.  The  comet  some- 
times returns  once  in  two  and  a  half  years,  sometimes 
not  at  all."  We  went  one  day  to  a  village  in  southern 
India,  where  the  people  listened  with  respectful  atten- 
tion. At  the  close  one  man  came  forward  who  said  he 
wanted  to  know  more  about  Christ,  but  he  should  not 
see  the  missionary  again  for  a  year,  and  could  not 
read.  How  was  he  to  know?  It  was  promised  that  a 
catechist  should  speedily  revisit  the  village. 

Missionaries  nowadays  attempt  less.  They  spend  a 
week  or  two  at  a  place,  and  return  frequently  to  the 
same  spot.  The  sown  seed  is  watched,  the  ripening 
harvest  garnered.  At  the  same  time  there  are  occa- 
sional tentative  excursions  to  explore,  diffuse,  gather 
in.    Most  unexpected  fruit  often  appears. 

Mr.  Tucker,  the  leader  of  the  Salvation  Army  in 
India,  recently  told  Mr.  Jones,  of  Madura,  that  they 
have  practically  abandoned  the  diffusive  policy,  as  it 
brought  no  lasting  effects,  and  are  concentrating  their 
labor  on  a  few  places,  and  prolonging  their  work  with 
a  view  to  abiding  results.  "  No  mission,"  adds  Mr. 
Jones,  ''  has  ever  prospered  by  simple  evangelizing. 
It  is  the  earliest  work  of  a  missionary,  but  it  is  the 
discipling  that  brings  the  permanent  results,  and  has 
given  to  missions  their  monumental  success." 

There  is  no  more  important  work  in  the  field  than 
evangelization.  Too  often,  especially  in  the  large  cities, 

65 


INTRODUCTION   TO   FOREIGN    MISSIONS 

it  is  put  Into  the  background.  But  the  country  people 
can  be  reached  only  by  the  evangelist.  Neither  rural 
nor  city  work  can,  as  a  rule,  be  left  for  its  initiation 
to  the  hands  of  natives.  The  weak  point  of  the 
Oriental  is  lack  of  organizing  and  executive  skill. 
The  controlHng  mind  of  a  European  will  be  needed 
back  of  all  evangelistic  work  for  a  long  time  to  come. 
But  an  experienced  missionary  will  know  how  to  keep 
a  large  number  of  native  helpers  at  work. 

Evangelists  are  often  forced  to  say,  "  We  have  seen ' 
little  or  no  fruit  from  all  our  labors."  Mr.  Ragland, 
who  had  for  four  years  been  conducting  special  evan- 
gelistic work  in  North  Tinnevelly,  with  two  associates 
and  a  large  corps  of  native  assistants,  said  at  the 
South  India  Conference,  at  Ootacamund,  in  1858: 
"  The  apparent  fruits  of  our  preaching  have  as  yet 
been  very  small.  We  can  count  up  about  500  persons 
who  expressed  a  desire  to  learn  Christianity,  but,  with 
a  very  few  exceptions,  all  sooner  or  later  drew  back. 
Yet  we  trust  that  the  day  is  not  far  distant  when  our 
converts  will  be  multiplied  manifold."  At  the  South 
India  Conference  in  1879,  twenty-one  years  later. 
Bishop  Sargent  was  able  to  say  of  these  same  evangel- 
ists, "  When  they  entered  this  work  at  first  there  were 
only  1000  converts;  now  there  are  40,000,  and  all 
owing  to  the  efforts  of  these  men." 

The  department  which  appears  as  the  rival  of  evan- 
gelism, the  most  discussed,  critised,  abused,  yet  always 
increasing  fastest  and  claiming  most,  is  that  of  educa- 
tion. It  is  certainly  the  most  conspicuous  work  on 
the  field. 

Evangelistic  work  is  intermittent,  often  Impractica- 
ble for  half  the  year;  educational  work  is  continuous, 
making  Its  claims  every  day.  The  one  Is  desultory; 
the  other  regular.    The  one  Is  large  In  its  demands  on 

66 


THE  DEPARTMENTS   IN   THEIR   VARIETY 

knowledge  and  experience ;  the  other  is  limited  in  those 
demands.  Evangelism  is  little  sought  for  and  coolly 
received ;  education  is  eagerly  sought.  The  former 
breaks  up  home  life  and  takes  one  all  abroad ;  the  latter 
keeps  one  anchored  at  home.  The  results  of  evangel- 
ism are  uncertain  and  long  concealed;  the  results  of 
education,  if  not  always  the  highest,  are  sure  and  con- 
spicuous, while  the  imposing  buildings  of  the  latter 
present  a  striking  contrast  to  the  simple  apparatus  of 
the  evangelist.  No  wonder  that  schools  rank  high  in 
the  reports  of  visitors  and  inspectors,  while  itinerancy 
makes  little  show  and  is  often  neglected. 

Logically,  evangelism  always  precedes  education; 
historically,  it  must  often  follow.  The  first  work  to 
which  our  missionaries  at  Harpoot  set  themselves  was 
to  teach  the  people  the  alphabet.  Then  they  taught 
them  the  gospel.  It  was  Christianity  based  on  the 
alphabet.  If  we  cannot  begin  where  we  would,  we 
must  begin  where  we  can.  The  proper  starting-point 
is  the  point  of  opportunity.  It  frequently  happens  that 
the  gunboat  is  the  first  evangelist,  heralding  to  a  ter- 
rified people  the  advent  of  a  mightier  civilization  than 
they  have  known.  The  response  is  an  eager  desire  to 
get  hold  of  western  science,  language,  industry,  and 
mechanism.  The  more  they  long  to  get  rid  of  the 
hated  foreigners,  the  quicker  must  they  master  their 
arts.  Then  comes  the  call  for  schools  and  foreign 
teachers.  No  gunboat  can  beat  down  the  wall  of 
religious  prejudice,  but  the  school  leads  into  the  tem- 
ple, and  if  Christian  teachers  are  first  on  the  ground, 
long  before  evangelism  is  permitted  they  may  reach 
the  hearts  of  the  people  through  their  minds  and 
bodies. 

This  has  actually  been  the  course  of  events  in  Japan 
and  Korea.     It  has  been,  and  is,  the  order  in  many 

67 


INTRODUCTION   TO   FOREIGN    MISSIONS 

sections  of  every  mission  field.  We  may  not  say, 
"  First  civilize,  then  Christianize,"  nor  may  we  always 
say  the  reverse.  Our  aim  is  to  reach  the  heart  and 
conscience  in  the  quickest,  surest  way.  If  the  straight 
road  is  closed  we  must  take  any  accessible  way,  though 
longer.  When  the  blizzard  piles  the  drifts  and  snaps 
the  wires  between  Boston  and  New  York,  the  Hub 
signals  the  metropolis  through  Manchester,  Rutland, 
and  Albany,  or  even  with  a  double  sub-oceanic  pas- 
sage via  London.  It  is  then  not  only  the  shortest,  it 
is  the  only  route.  It  is  the  same  with  the  soul.  The 
point  is  to  get  there  by  whatever  road.  My  friend  Dr. 
Kitchen,  of  Tokio,  spent  one  year  as  secular  teacher  in 
Mr.  Fukuzawa's  school,  asking  simply  the  privilege 
of  meeting  his  students  in  a  voluntary  Bible-class  out- 
side of  school  hours.  The  result  was  that  at  the  end 
of  the  year  fifty  out  of  590  had  become  advocates  of 
Christianity,  of  whom  thirty-nine  had  joined  the 
church,  twenty  in  my  presence  organizing  themselves 
into  a  Young  Men's  Christian  Association.  To  the 
true  missionary  the  school  is  always  an  evangelistic 
field. 

This  is  the  way  in  which  the  educational  work 
grows.  The  gospel  is  light ;  light  on  the  Word  as  well 
as  in  the  life.  First  of  all,  the  converts  must  be  taught 
to  read  the  Word  of  God  for  themselves.  Here,  at  the 
start,  the  evangelical  mission  strikes  down  one  of  the 
most  common  and  darkening  errors  of  all  false  relig- 
ions —  the  doctrine  of  the  inaccessibility  and  unintelli- 
gibility  of  the  sacred  writings.  All  who  hear  the  gos- 
pel message  must  be  able  to  read  it.  Hence  at  once 
a  care  for  primary  education.  Whether  in  the  zenana, 
the  rest-house,  or  the  mission-compound,  there  must 
be  an  elementary  school. 

But  so  much  only  calls  for  more.  If  Christian  schol- 
68 


THE  DEPARTMENTS   IN   THEIR   VARIETY 

ars  and  Bible-readers  are  to  be  multiplied,  missionaries 
cannot  possibly  supply  the  demand.  Native  Christians 
must  be  trained  to  the  work  who  can  be  put  on  small 
salaries  in  every  spot  where  they  are  needed,  follow- 
ing in  the  track  of  the  evangelist.  For  such  teachers 
there  must  be  training  or  normal  schools. 

But  not  only  teachers  are  needed;  there  must  be 
male  and  female  Bible-readers  who  can  do  evangel- 
istic work;  catechists  who  can  care  for  the  first  con- 
verts in  each  community  before  it  has  grown  into  a 
church ;  evangelists  who  can  more  and  more  assume 
the  itinerating  work;  preachers  and  pastors  who  can 
train  their  own  people,  organize  the  work,  and  thus 
lift  the  increasing  responsibility  from  the  shoulders  of 
the  missionary,  leaving  him  free  to  supervise  the  old 
and  push  on  the  new  work.  In  a  word,  a  native  min- 
istry of  all  classes  and  orders  must  be  trained,  some 
requiring  a  brief  and  simple  education,  others  one  that 
is  long  and  full.  Thus  there  spring  up  training- 
schools,  high-schools,  colleges,  seminaries,  universities. 
Soon  appears  a  second  generation  of  Christians,  and 
these  children  have  the  same  claim  on  the  church  for 
a  broad  education  that  our  children  at  home  have. 
Like  the  church  here,  the  mission  there  responds  with 
boarding-schools  and  more  colleges  for  boys  and  girls, 
quite  apart  from  any  special  aim  they  may  have 
towards  the  ministry.  Thus  the  simple  training-school 
is  differentiated  into  a  complete  group  of  educational 
institutions. 

Yet  this  is  not  all.  Many  homes  are  quickest  en- 
tered through  the  children.  Heathen  parents  who  will 
not  heed  the  gospel  will  often  send  their  children  to 
a  mission  school.  The  children  are  easily  won,  and 
always  take  something  of  Christianity  to  their  homes. 
The  school  becomes  their  evangelist  and  makes  them 

69 


INTRODUCTION  TO   FOREIGN   MISSIONS 

evangelists.  This  is  the  reason  for  so-called  heathen 
schools,  caste  schools,  or  Hindu  schools,  as  the}^  are 
called  in  India. 

Now  as  soon  as  the  desire  for  education  becomes 
general  —  a  desire  largely  created,  always  fostered, 
by  the  mission  —  other  institutions  are  established  out- 
side —  governmental,  native,  priestly,  secular,  heathen, 
as  the  case  may  be.  This  education  tends  to  rational- 
ism and  scepticism,  or  reactionary  heathenism. 
Through  rival  and  patriotic  claims  and  borrowed  tools 
it  competes  with,  perhaps  outbids,  the  foreign  school. 
This  has  been  the  experience,  among  others,  with 
Robert  College,  at  Constantinople,  and  the  Doshisha, 
at  Kioto.  The  only  way  to  meet  this  opposition  is  to 
keep  the  Christian  schools  ahead  of  their  rivals,  the 
teacher  always  remaining  an  evangelizer.  That  was 
the  plan  of  Dr.  Duff  in  India;  it  is  the  plan  of  many; 
to-day  in  Japan,  China,  and  Turkey. 

Of  course  there  are  infant  schools,  kindergartens, 
orphanages,  girls'  schools,  industrial  schools,  Sunday- 
schools,  each  with  its  own  special  place  and  work  as  a 
part  of  the  great  system  of  Christian  education  which, 
as  I  trust  this  outline  has  made  plain,  inevitably 
springs  from  and  directly  contributes  to  the  evangel- 
istic work. 

Heathen  systems  are  based  upon,  or  interwoven 
with,  conceptions  of  nature,  of  history,  of  mankind, 
as  false,  for  the  most  part,  as  their  conceptions  of  God. 
A  science,  history,  philanthropy  that  are  true  will  as- 
suredly demolish  those  systems.  If  wielded  by  the 
hand  of  the  evangelist,  instead  of  the  secularist  or 
agnostic,  or  bigot  and  pagan,  such  education  will  as 
certainly  build  up  the  kingdom  of  God  as  it  will  tear 
down  the  kingdom  of  lies. 

An  enthusiastic  educator,  like  some  of  the  men  in 
70 


THE  DEPARTMENTS  IN   THEIR  VARIETY 

Toklo  and  Kioto,  in  Madras,  Cairo,  Beirut,  or  Con- 
stantinople, will  feel  that  he  holds  the  keys  of  the 
future  in  his  hand.  He  is  the  teacher  of  teachers; 
the  former  of  the  thought,  the  character,  the  life,  the 
society  of  those  who,  in  the  dissolution  of  the  fabric 
of  paganism,  are  to  bind  the  elements  together  in  a 
new  structure,  and  themselves  form  the  thought,  the 
character,  the  life,  and  social  units  of  a  nation.  His 
school  may  be  full  of  political  Jeffersons  and  Adamses, 
of  ecclesiastical  Luthers  and  Calvins.  He  need  not 
tour  over  the  country.  Here  in  this  one  building  is 
his  one  field  for  evangelism.  The  seeds  for  the  inde- 
pendence of  Bulgaria  were  sown  in  the  class-rooms 
of  Robert  College. 

The  third  branch  of  mission  work  is  the  literary  — 
for  the  creation  of  a  Christian  literature.  Think  what 
our  Christian  literature  is  to  us ;  how  many  centuries, 
how  many  lives,  how  many  labors  have  contributed  to 
it !  We  shall  then  begin  to  realize  the  work  to  be  done 
for  every  land.  The  language  itself,  or  at  least  the 
written  form  of  it,  must  often  be  created.  Romanized 
characters  are  being  introduced  into  Japan  and  vari- 
ous provinces  of  China.  Great  and  venerable  lan- 
guages, saturated  with  paganism,  materialism,  and 
sensuality,  but  poorly  equipped  with  terms  for  spirit- 
ual and  religious  sentiments,  must  be  made  receptive 
and  expressive  of  the  new  Christian  content,  and  so 
pressed  into  the  service  of  the  Lord.  The  homoonsian 
and  homoiousian  controversies  of  old  times  can  hardly 
have  caused  greater  dissensions  and  heartburnings 
among  the  church  fathers  than  the  controversies  in 
China  as  to  the  proper  term  for  God  have  caused 
among  earnest  missionaries. 

The  central  and  most  creative  work  of  all  is  the 
translation    of   the    Bible.       Mohammedanism    seems 

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INTRODUCTION   TO   FOREIGN   MISSIONS 

never  to  have  known  the  Bible.  Why  was  it  not  in 
Arabic?  What  a  difference  to  the  world  it  might 
have  made !  The  Nestorian  mission  in  China,  and  the 
Roman  Catholic  mission  in  Japan  could  both  be  swept 
away,  because  they  gave  no  Bible.  The  open  Bible 
saved  Madagascar.  That  age-long  enterprise  which 
began,  for  us,  with  Wyckliffe  and  Tyndale,  and  has 
been  brought  to  its  latest  stage  by  the  Anglo-American 
Revision,  is  to  be  undertaken  for  every  language  and 
every  principal  dialect  by  the  missionaries,  foreigners 
though  they  be.  Natives  will  assist;  revise,  and  finally 
complete;  the  missionaries  must  begin  and  direct  the 
work.  The  translation  must  be  faithful,  idiomatic,  at- 
tractive, neither  so  high  as  to  be  above  the  common 
people,  nor  so  low  as  to  lose  dignity  and  the  respect 
of  scholars.  What  call,  then,  for  linguistic  skill,  for 
exegetic  tact,  for  spiritual  sympathies !  What  need 
of  trained  minds,  of  studious,  persevering,  careful 
habits !  What  musical  deed  was  ever  so  glorious  as 
to  seize  a  language,  the  great  organ  of  a  people,  and  by 
touching  its  keys  to  make  it  sound  forth,  in  wondrous 
symphony,  from  all  its  thousands  of  pipes,  the  sublime 
revelation  of  the  God  and  Father  of  our  Lord  Jesus 
Christ!  The  work  of  Carey  and  his  coadjutors  at 
Serampore,  and  his  successors  all  through  India;  of 
Goodell  and  Riggs  and  Schauffler  and  others  at  Con- 
stantinople; of  Vandyke  and  Eli  Smith  in  Arabic; 
the  work  of  Hepburn  and  his  fellow-laborers  in  Japan ; 
the  union  translations  in  China  —  such  achievements 
as  these  would  of  themselves  justify  the  mission  en- 
terprise. 

When  I  was  in  Tinnevelly,  Bishop  Sargent  told  me 
of  a  rich  native  who  was  ready  to  give  money  to  the 
Hindus  for  founding  a  large  school  if  they  would  have 
the  Bible  read  in  it.     When  the  priests  consulted  to- 

72 


THE  DEPARTMENTS   IN   THEIR   VARIETY 

gether,  one  of  them  said :  "  It  is  not  the  mere  written 
Word  that  can  advance  Christianity.  Only  when 
translated  into  act  has  it  power,  so  we  need  not  fear 
the  mere  reading  of  the  Bible/'  But  another  objected : 
"  That  is  not  the  case.  The  mere  printed  Word  of 
the  Bible  has  a  power  in  itself.  Who  could  read  the 
third  chapter  of  Daniel,  for  instance,  and  not  see  that 
the  Bible  treats  all  worship  of  images  as  false  ?  "  So 
the  offer  was  rejected.  They  were  wise.  The  Bible 
is  a  living  book,  and  many  are  the  instances  where 
the  simple  reading  of  the  Word  has  brought  convic- 
tion, conversion,  and  even  the  forming  of  a  Christian 
community. 

At  the  same  time  no  vernacular  Bible  is  satisfactory 
or  permanent  except  in  the  hands  of  a  living  church. 
This  is  clearly  shown  by  the  differing  fate  and  fruit 
of  Carey's  different  translations,  according  as  each 
was  or  was  not  committed  to  a  church.  In  China, 
moreover,  the  great  Protestant  cry,  "  The  Bible  with- 
out note  or  comment,"  has  been  dropped,  and  the 
Shanghai   Conference  voted   for  an   annotated   Bible. 

Now  on  this  foundation  the  whole  Christian  lit- 
erature of  many  a  people  is  to  be  reared.  All  the  ap- 
paratus for  studying  the  languages  must  be  prepared. 
Then  come  translations,  compilations,  compositions 
of  every  kind  of  book.  There  must  be  text-books  for 
schools  and  colleges  and  theological  students ;  lit- 
erature for  homes,  churches,  Sunday-schools,  and  the 
natives.  There  is  editorial  work  to  be  done  in  pub- 
lishing papers  and  other  periodicals.  Hymn  and  tune 
books  must  be  prepared.  Even  the  sacred  books  of 
other  religions  are  largely  translated  by  missionaries. 
I  do  not  mention  their  contributions  to  Geography, 
History,  and  Natural  Science.  "  Other  colonizers," 
says  Dr.  Cust  "  applying  to  one  country  what  is  true 

7Z 


INTRODUCTION   TO    FOREIGN    MISSIONS 

in  some  degree  of  all,  may  have  caused  cities  to  spring 
up  in  what  was  lately  a  waste,  and  turned  virgin 
prairies  into  a  garden  of  cereals,  saccharines,  and  oils ; 
but  to  the  missionaries  alone  has  it  been  given  to  go 
among  a  savage  people  who  had  no  alphabet  and  had 
never  heard  of  the  ink-bottle  and  the  reed  pen,  and 
in  a  few  years  to  lead  them  across  a  gulf  which  other 
nations  have  only  traversed  in  the  slow  progress  of 
centuries,  to  fashion  for  them  a  literary  language  out 
of  their  own  vocables,  teaching  them  to  read  and 
write,  to  join  in  prayer  and  praise  and  song,  to  start 
a  printing-press  in  their  midst  and  make  use  of  the 
people  themselves  to  work  it,  so  that  the  African  has 
taken  in,  adopted,  and  practised  within  twenty-five 
years  what  took  the  Greek  and  Latin  twenty-five  cen- 
turies to  accomplish.  These  are  but  fragments  of  the 
great  edifice  of  Christian  belief  and  life,  which  it  is 
the  object  of  missions  to  erect,  and  which  no  other 
conceivable  agency  could  have  effected." 

The  fourth  and  youngest  of  the  major  departments 
of  missions  is  the  medical  work.  It  goes  directly  back 
to  the  example  of  our  Lord,  "  who  had  compassion 
for  the  sick  and  healed  them,  and  gave  his  disciples 
power  to  heal  all  manner  of  sickness  and  all  manner 
of  disease." 

The  missionary  community  itself  must  have  medical 
help.  No  person  skilled  to  cure  can  behold  the  suf- 
fering mass  of  humanity  about  him  without  doing 
something  to  relieve  their  distress.  The  work  once 
begun  enlarges,  presses,  brings  forth  fruit,  until  special 
physicians  must  be  sent  out.  Such  marvellous  skill, 
such  unimagined  kindness  establish  a  claim  on  the 
respect  and  gratitude  of  the  patient,  which  makes  an 
open  avenue  for  the  gospel.  That  is  the  philosophy 
of  medical  missions.     At  the  same  time  their  very 

74 


THE  DEPARTMENTS   IN   THEIR  VARIETY 

skill  and  success  excite  superstitious  awe,  as  of  witch- 
craft, which  may  become  the  source  of  slander  and 
riot,  as  in  China. 

Even  the  ancient  civilization  of  China,  with  all  its 
achievements,  has  accomplished  little  for  the  cure  of 
disease.  Their  superstition  forbids  to  this  day  the 
dissection  of  the  human  body,  and  I  found  only  models 
of  papier-mache  in  the  mission  medical  schools.  Anat- 
omy, physiology,  pathology,  and  materia  medica  are 
not  only  unknown,  but  replaced  by  most  absurd  the- 
ories. Surgery  is  practised  in  China  in  only  the 
rudest  way.  "  Before  surgeons  came  from  the  west," 
says  Dr.  Kerr,  "  there  was  no  one  in  all  the  empire 
who  would  venture  to  puncture  an  abscess  or  remove 
the  simplest  tumor."  Diseases  are  the  visitation  of 
evil  spirits,  and  are  to  be  driven  out  by  gongs  and 
fire-crackers,  or  by  drinking  the  ashes  of  hieroglyphic 
charms.  Think  of  the  sufferings  of  mothers  and 
children,  of  the  pains  of  disease,  enhanced  a  hundred 
times  by  superstitious  terrors !  There  is  often  a  kind 
of  intuitive  knowledge  of  the  use  of  native  herbs  in 
sickness,  but  beyond  that  the  native  medicine-man  is 
a  quack  whose  profession  in  the  eyes  of  his  people 
ranks  with  the  mysterious  occupations  of  the  priest 
and  the  soothsayer. 

The  medical  missionary  should  be  one  thoroughly 
trained  for  his  work,  especially  in  surgery.  But  the 
chief  object  should  always  be  kept  foremost  in  his 
mind  —  evangelization.  Just  as  the  literary  work 
simply  gives  a  basis  for  the  direct  aim  of  the  mission, 
so  the  medical  work,  which  treats  man  as  an  embodied 
soul,  must  keep  the  soul  always  in  view.  "  Philip  has 
shrunk  into  an  ambassador,"  wrote  Dr.  Carey  once  of 
his  son.  The  missionary  should  never  shrink  into  a 
mere  physician. 


INTRODUCTION   TO   FOREIGN   MISSIONS 

Next  to  this  danger  is  that  of  neglecting  the  lan- 
guage. More  than  all  other  men  the  missionary  is 
pressed  into  the  work  from  the  start.  But  his  use- 
fulness will  be  permanently  injured  if  he  does  not 
devote  the  first  year  almost  exclusively  to  the  study 
of  the  language.  Dr.  Lowe,  of  the  Edinburgh  Med- 
ical Society,  even  recommends  that  he  be  sent  to  a 
station  distant  from  his  future  work,  and  that  his  full 
medical  and  surgical  outfit  be  not  supplied  until  he 
has  passed  his  examinations  in  the  vernacular. 

The  divisions  of  the  work  are  mainly  four.  He 
may  do  a  localized  or  an  itinerant  work.  He  may 
have  a  hospital  or  a  dispensary.  Probably  he  will 
combine  two  or  more  of  them.  Besides  this,  he  will 
soon  begin  to  train  his  assistants,  all  of  whom  should 
be  Christians,  as  nurses  and  physicians.  They  will 
become  medical  missionaries  to  their  own  people.  The 
hospital  and  dispensary  may  often  be  made  self-sup- 
porting through  their  benefits  to  the  local  community, 
whether  native  or  European.  This  is  the  case  with 
the  hospitals  at  Tientsin,  Shanghai,  and  Foochow.  In 
India  the  government  gives  grants  to  such  medical 
work. 

But  the  medical  missionary  must  avoid  being  drawn 
from  his  evangelistic  work  into  private  practice.  The 
attractions  and  emoluments  of  this  are  frequently 
great.  If  he  have  not  taken  up  the  cross  for  life,  if 
he  be  not  fully  consecrated,  he  may  yield. 

It  is  important  that  the  physician  should  also  be  a 
preacher.  This  office  he  cannot  delegate  to  others. 
If  he  neglect  the  gospel,  he  need  not  be  surprised  that 
his  assistants  and  patients  do  the  same. 

As  a  model  of  what  should  be  done,  let  me  give  a 
sketch  of  Dr.  McKenzie's  famous  hospital,  as  I  found 
it  in  Tientsin  in  1888.     He  had  then  an  average  of 

7^ 


THE  DEPARTMENTS  IN  THEIR  VARIETY 

forty-two  in-patients  daily,  the  average  length  of  stay^ 
being  twenty-one  and  one-half  days.  As  a  rule,  the 
patient  paid  for  his  food  and  provided  his  bedding. 
The  doctor  employed  two  dispensers,  three  ward  at- 
tendants, a  cook,  a  gate-keeper,  and  a  coolie,  all  but 
the  last  being  active  Christians.  He  began  each  day 
with  a  conversational  Bible-reading  of  three-quarters 
of  an  hour,  many  of  the  patients  taking  part.  Medical 
work  in  the  wards  is  all  done  before  two  o'clock. 
After  that  the  ward  attendants  spend  a  large  portion 
of  every  day  in  teaching  the  catechism  to  those  pa- 
tients who  can  and  will  receive  instruction.  Enthu- 
siasm is  aroused,  and  the  more  advanced  among  the 
patients  help  instruct  the  others.  Tuesday  evenings 
a  class  is  held  for  gathering  up  the  fruit  of  the  week. 
Friday  evenings  there  is  a  special  meeting  of  the 
helpers  and  other  Christians  for  prayer  and  study  of 
the  Scriptures.  I  have  met  few  missionaries  who 
have  so  impressed  me  with  the  spiritual  power  of 
their  life  as  did  Dr.  McKenzie,  now  gone  to  his  re- 
ward. When  I  asked  him  what  the  viceroy,  Li  Hung 
Chang,  the  chief  patron  of  the  hospital,  thought  of 
this  so  marked  religious  feature,  he  replied,  ''  He 
thinks  it  a  harmless  eccentricity."  But  this  eccentric- 
ity is  so  effective  that  more  members  are  usually  re- 
ceived into  the  London  Missionary  Society  church  at 
Tientsin  from  this  hospital  than  from  all  other  sources. 
There  is  a  great  difference  in  the  opportunities  pre- 
sented by  different  countries  for  medical  work.  In 
Japan  the  day  for  such  work  is  gone  by.  The  native 
physicians  are  well  trained  and  numerous.  They  re- 
gard such  movements  with  jealousy.  In  India  the 
government  does  much  itself  for  the  sick,  but  it  also 
welcomes  and  aids  medical  missionaries.  Female  phy- 
sicians are  needed  who,  unlike  those  serving  under 

77 


INTRODUCTION  TO  FOREIGN   MISSIONS 

the  Lady  Dufferin  fund,  and  therefore  pledged  against 
uttering  a  word  about  religion,  shall  be  as  skilful  in 
teaching  Christ  as  in  healing  sickness.  China  is  the 
great  field  for  medical  missionaries ;  nothing  so  much 
breaks  down  Chinese  pride  or  secures  the  people's 
gratitude. 

In  1849  there  were  not  more  than  forty  medical 
missionaries  in  the  whole  field.  The  first  three  to 
China  were  from  the  American  Board,  the  leader 
among  them  being  Dr.  Peter  Parker,  who  "  opened 
China  to  the  gospel  at  the  point  of  his  lancet." 

I  have  described  the  four  great  departments  of  work 
on  the  field.  But  it  would  be  an  error  to  suppose  that 
this  is  all.     There  are  other  minor  branches. 

Fifth,  the  musical  work.  If  people  are  to  praise 
God  they  must  have  voices,  songs,  hymns,  and  instru- 
ments of  praise.  If  we  can  make  the  songs  of  these 
melody-loving  peoples,  we  shall  be  sure  to  gain  their 
hearts.  Next  to  the  Bible  comes  the  hymn  and  tune 
book.  The  missionary  may  find  sweet  native  poets, 
such  as  are  in  the  Marathi  Mission.  He  may  spar- 
ingly introduce  the  best  tunes  from  his  own  land, 
much  of  Sankey's  music  being  very  popular.  Still 
more  should  he  cull  out  the  best  native  melodies,  trans- 
fer them  to  our  musical  scale,  and  have  them  set  to 
appropriate  words.  Then  he  should  train  his  voices. 
Two  of  our  missionaries  in  Japan  have  devoted  months 
to  the  preparation  of  a  uniform  hymn  and  tune  book, 
now  completed.  I  have  seldom  heard  better  congre- 
gational singing  than  at  Ahmadnagar,  in  India,  and 
at  Samokov,  Bulgaria.  How  many  souls  all  round 
the  world  are  sung  into  the  kingdom  of  heaven ! 

Sixth,  the  mechanical  or  industrial  department. 
Partly  to  help  pupils  pay  their  way  through  school, 
partly   to   provide   a    future   means   of   support    for 

78 


THE  DEPARTMENTS  IN  THEIR  VARIETY 

orphans,  or  any  young  persons,  many  schools  and 
orphanages  have  an  industrial  department  connected 
with  them,  in  which  young  men,  perhaps  young 
women,  are  taught  various  trades.  The  Roman  Cath- 
olics have  long  made  use  of  the  plan  with  great  suc- 
cess, and  it  is  being  extensively  adopted  by  Prot- 
estants. I  have  seen  such  departments  in  Bardizag, 
near  Nicomedia,  and  in  Samokov;  also  in  other  mis- 
sions of  other  bodies.  Girls  learn  to  sew  and  spin  and 
weave.  Boys  learn  the  carpenter's,  cabinet-maker's, 
tailor's,  shoemaker's,  and  printer's  trades.  The  Basel 
Mission  has  a  most  extensive  work  of  this  kind  in 
India.  The  American  Board  has  an  industrial  school 
at-Sirur,  near  Ahmadnagar,  over  which  Mr.  Winsor 
is  most  enthusiastic.  Another  has  been  introduced  at 
Focchow.  Every  mechanical  gift  which  a  missionary 
possesses  will  be  utilized  in  this  work. 

Seventh,  the  episcopal  or  paternal  department.  This 
is  rather  a  function  than  a  department,  because  it  is 
interwoven  with  almost  everything  a  missionary  does. 
In  most  countries  native  Christians,  even  pastors,  long 
remain  children,  dependent  on  the  missionary  for  guid- 
ance and  aid.  Nowhere  at  home,  in  non-episcopal 
churches,  will  a  man  be  so  called  upon  to  exercise 
this  function  of  oversight  and  direction  as  on  the  mis- 
sion field.  He  is  the  teacher  of  the  teachers,  the  guide 
of  the  guides.  He  is  the  head  of  many  families,  the 
powerful,  wise  one  to  whom  a  large  circle  of  converts 
and  helpers  look  for  advice,  comfort,  and,  too  often, 
for  pay  or  alms.  ''  You  are  the  father  and  the  mother 
of  us  all."  He  is  consulted  about  marriages  and  fu- 
nerals, and  is  the  general  father-confessor.  While 
much  of  this  should  be  avoided,  he  must  long  remain 
the  practical  bishop  among  the  native  pastors  and 
churches.     There  is  such  a  demand  for  organizing, 

79 


INTRODUCTION   TO    FOREIGN    MISSIONS 

executive,  governing  talent  as,  at  home,  comes  to  not 
one  in  a  thousand.  The  missionary  should  be  a  states- 
man, a  man  able  to  know,  select,  train,  and  guide  men ; 
he  should  be  a  churchman,  able  to  found  and  develop, 
not  one  church  alone,  but  whole  groups  of  churches. 
The  culmination  of  missionary  life  seems  to  be  reached 
in  this  episcopal  function. 

Every  one  of  these  seven  departments  directly  con- 
cerns the  people  to  whom  the  missionary  is  sent.  There 
are  others  which  concern  them  only  indirectly,  yet  are 
indispensable.     They  are : 

Eighth,  architectural.  Everywhere  houses  must  be 
built  or  adapted  for  use.  Everywhere  school-houses, 
chapels,  churches  are  to  be  put  up ;  therefore,  the  mis- 
sionary must  be  an  architect  and  builder.  Yes,  he 
must  often  be  the  contractor,  master-mechanic,  and 
master-mason.  I  have  seen  the  missionary  working 
most  of  the  day  with  brick  and  mortar.  Then  he 
changes  his  clothes  and  teaches  a  class  of  boys,  re- 
citing, perhaps,  in  a  shed  until  the  school-building  is 
completed.  But  as  a  rule,  I  must  confess,  I  have  ad- 
mired the  pluck  and  devotion  of  these  amateur  archi- 
tects more  than  their  success.  They  do  not,  however, 
make  the  mistake  of  a  friend  of  mine,  I  will  not  say 
where,  who  planned  a  fine  two-story  building,  and  only 
realized  when  it  was  too  late  to  change  that  he  had 
allowed  no  room  for  a  stairway,  which,  therefore,  was 
built  on  from  the  outside.  Far  too  often  in  the  trop- 
ical climate  of  India  a  stiff  New  England  meeting- 
house is  erected,  with  no  more  comeliness  than  adapta- 
tion to  the  climate.  In  this  the  Romanists  are  much 
ahead  of  us.  In  all  their  great  centres  they  employ 
a  skilful  architect.  At  every  central  station  there 
should  be  a  layman  competent  to  conduct  both  this 
department  and  the  following: 

80 


THE  DEPARTMENTS   IN   THEIR   VARIETY 

Ninth,  the  mercantile  department.  I  quite  despair 
of  giving  an  idea  of  its  variety  and  importance.  The 
missionary  is  an  agent  for  the  transaction  of  all  kinds 
of  business.  He  may  be  a  purchaser  for  his  entire 
station.  He  must  ship  all  goods  thus  bought  or  re- 
ceived from  home  to  points  hundreds  of  miles  apart. 
Some  one  must  be  paymaster  to  the  mission,  and 
treasurer  for  all  its  receipts  and  expenditures.  Every 
missionary  is  paymaster  to  a  troop  of  native  agents, 
catechists,  school-teachers,  Bible-women,  etc.  He  is 
also,  by  choice  of  the  native  Christians,  usually  their 
treasurer,  or  at  least  holds  their  funds ;  for  Orientals, 
even  Christians,  are  slow  to  trust  one  another  in  this 
way.  If  there  is  a  printing-press,  the  missionary  must 
superintend  that.  Much  of  all  this  should  be  done  by 
a  business  agent.  I  know  of  few  ways  in  which  a 
good  business  layman  could  do  more  to  advance  the 
cause  of  Christ  than  to  take  this  work  from  the  hands 
of  missionaries,  not  always  gifted  with  practical  skill, 
and  always  weighed  down  with  overwork,  and  do  the 
whole  business  as  it  ought  to  be  done,  for  the  glory 
of  God.  Such  men  save  the  mission  thousands  of 
dollars,  besides  relieving  men  for  their  proper  work, 
and  achieving  a  fine  business  reputation  for  the  mis- 
sion. 

I  seem  to  have  reached  the  end  of  his  labors  when 
I  speak  of  the  missionary  as  correspondent.  This  is 
no  light  matter.  He  must  correspond  not  only  with 
his  home  relatives,  but  also  with  his  mission  board,  to 
give  reports  of  his  work,  and  with  his  brethren  and 
agents  on  the  field,  to  keep  up  with  their  doings.  Then 
he  must  often  write  to  the  churches  at  home,  especially 
if  he  solicits  or  receives  special  funds  from  such 
sources.  Some  men  depend  largely  for  the  develop- 
ment of  their  work  on  funds  received  in  small  con- 


INTRODUCTION   TO   FOREIGN    MISSIONS 

tributions  from  many  private  quarters.  Each  of  these 
calls  for  a  letter,  and  the  burden  becomes  very  heavy. 

These,  then,  are  the  ten  departments  of  missionary 
work,  the  ten  digits  whose  fingers  most  heavily  press 
down  oiir  weary  brethren  in  the  field.  I  know  some 
who  have  been  engaged  in  all  of  them,  but  for  the 
most  part  there  is  a  division  of  labor,  where  each  takes 
the  work  for  which  he  is  best  fitted.  This  marvellous 
diversity  in  some  ways  gives  a  better  sense  of  the 
greatness  of  the  work  than  anything  else.  It  shows 
how  vast  is  the  undertaking,  how  broad  the  founda- 
tion, how  varied  the  call.  There  is  not  a  single  talent 
which  may  not  be  made  serviceable  in  the  field.  There 
is  such  a  variety  of  work  to  choose  from  that  all  may 
be  suited.  It  is  the  Anglo-Saxon's  versatility  of  char- 
acter that  has  so  well  fitted  our  brethren  for  this  work. 

I  do  not  claim  that  even  this  is  an  exhaustive  cat- 
alogue of  all  branches  of  a  missionary's  employment. 
There  are  two  others  which  are  incidental,  though  im- 
portant. The  eleventh  department  is  philanthropic. 
The  missionary  is  called  upon  to  lead  great  human- 
itarian movements.  The  prohibition  of  child-murder 
and  widow-burning  in  India,  and  many  other  benev- 
olent deeds  everywhere,  are  largely  due  to  missiona- 
ries. Robert  Hume  has  travelled  all  over  India,  as  the 
secretary  of  the  Indian  Marriage  Reform  Association. 

The  twelfth  and  last  department  is  the  matrimonial 
or  match-making  department.  I  speak  with  perfect 
seriousness,  though  I  own  to  much  and  amused  sur- 
prise on  learning  the  facts.  The  native  girls  come 
into  the  charge  of  the  missionaries  in  orphanages  and 
boarding-schools.  They  are  to  be  provided  with  hus- 
bands, and  Christian  husbands.  On  the  other  hand, 
the  Christian  young  men  —  pastors,  catechists,  and 
others  —  want  educated  Christian  wives,  just  such  as 


THE   DEPARTMENTS   IN   THEIR  VARIETY 

are  to  be  found  in  these  schools.  But  the  parties  most 
concerned  do  not  make  the  matches;  that  is  usually 
done  by  the  parents.  And  the  mission  now  stands 
in  loco  parentis  to  the  girls.  Sometimes  in  China  par- 
ents transfer  their  daughters  entirely  to  the  mission, 
the  latter  agreeing  to  make  the  match  and  furnish  the 
dowry.  The  young  man,  through  his  father,  applies 
for  any  one  in  general,  or  for  a  certain  one  in  partic- 
ular. The  mission,  which  usually  means  the  mission- 
ary's wife  or  the  school-teacher,  suggests,  approves,  or 
vetoes  a  choice,  and  further  arrangements  are  made 
accordingly.  I  do  not  say  that  this  is  universal.  But 
in  China  and  India  it  often  occurs,  and  in  some  schools 
is  the  rule.  It  adds  a  new  and  peculiar  responsibility, 
but,  considering  oriental  customs,  it  is  often  a  most 
beneficial  practice. 

Should  confirmation  be  needed  of  the  variety  of 
the  work  as  I  have  presented  it,  listen  to  the  words 
of  Dr.  J.  W.  Scudder,  at  Calcutta :  "  So  far  as  my 
experience  goes,  the  office  of  the  missionary  is  never 
a  sinecure.  Anxious  to  give  himself  chiefly  to  the 
spiritual  part  of  his  work,  he  is  thwarted  at  every 
turn.  Besides  exercising  his  legitimate  functions  as 
preacher,  pastor,  and  evangelist,  he  is  coerced  by  his 
environment  to  act  in  rotation  as  master,  manager,  in- 
spector, and  examiner  of  schools,  superintending  and 
travelling  catechist;  doctor  and  dispensing  druggist; 
accountant  and  paymaster;  architect  and  master- 
builder;  magistrate,  judge,  and  jury;  secretary,  with 
an  extensive  home  correspondence ;  a  member  of  sev- 
eral committees  ;  an  officer  or  trustee  of  various  benev- 
olent societies,  and  sometimes  a  municipal  commis- 
sioner." 

An  old  Scotchman  once  claimed  to  have  invented  a 
machine  for  blowing  thirteen  fires  at  once.     That  is 

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INTRODUCTION   TO   FOREIGN    MISSIONS 

the  machine  for  the  missionary.  Twelve  fires  I  have 
named.  But  he  may  be  jack-at-all-trades,  yet  do  well 
if  he  be  only  master  of  one.  Master  of  hearts  he 
certainly  must  be.  That  is  the  thirteenth  fire,  which 
must  be  constantly  kept  aglow.  His  own  heart  first, 
then  the  hearts  of  his  people.  Out  of  the  consecrated 
mission  heart  come  the  many  issues  of  mission  life. 


84 


IV, 

THE  HOME  AND  REST  OF  THE  MISSIONARY 

There  is  an  element  of  missionary  life  which  is 
seldom  presented,  yet  most  important.  It  is  the  mis- 
sion home.  At  none  of  the  great  missionary  confer- 
ences have  I  found  a  paper  devoted  to  this  subject. 
Yet  it  underlies  the  whole  of  the  work,  and  discloses 
the  ideal  of  Protestant  missions  more  clearly  than  any 
other  point.  For  the  sake  of  the  contrast,  glance  a 
moment  at  the  Roman  Catholic  missions. 

Two  elements  are  prominent  in  the  Roman  Catholic 
work  which  are  absent  or  inconspicuous  in  that  of  the 
Protestants :  the  celibate  and  the  sacramental  features. 
The  former  of  these  involves  the  sending  out,  for  the 
evangelization  of  the  world,  orders  of  men  devoted  to 
poverty,  chastity,  and  obedience.  The  missionary, 
even  if  not  an  ascetic,  is  always  to  be  a  celibate.  He 
seeks  to  plant  the  church  among  the  heathen,  but  it 
is  a  church  which  inheres  in  the  priesthood,  not  in  the 
congregation.  He  seeks  the  salvation  of  the  heathen, 
but  that  salvation  is  communicated  through  the  sacra- 
ments, the  reception  of  baptism,  the  service  of  the  mass. 
The  Roman  Catholic  missionary  evangelizes  little,  in 
our  sense  of  the  word.  He  does  not  preach  in  the 
open  air  to  the  natives.  He  educates  little,  except  to 
train  men  for  the  church  or  to  compete  with  Prot- 
estants. The  Order  of  St.  Joseph,  which  I  visited  in 
Hongkong,  and  which  is  established  in  various  coun- 
tries, including  our  own,  is  an  exception  to  this  rule, 

85 


INTRODUCTIOISr   TO    FOREIGN   MISSIONS 

as  it  has  founded  many  fine  institutions  devoted  to 
higher  education. 

But  the  chief  aim  of  the  Roman  Catholic  mission 
seems  to  be  to  attract,  hold,  and  train  its  people  by  its 
ritual,  by  confession,  and  by  catechetical  instruction. 
It  establishes  great  institutions  for  children,  especially 
orphans,  gives  them  a  small  amount  of  mental  and  a 
large  amount  of  industrial  training,  secures  the  forma- 
tion first  of  Christian  families,  then  of  communities 
composed  of  these  children  committed  to  its  hands, 
and  from  such  communities  expands  by  natural  gen- 
eration and  accretion.  It  produces  a  people  not  very 
intelligent,  not  very  distinct  from  the  heathen  —  be- 
cause in  India  it  yields  to  caste,  and  everywhere  com- 
promises with  the  social  customs  and  approximates 
the  worship  of  paganism  —  but  a  people,  on  the  whole, 
loyal  to  their  church,  and  as  faithful  to  the  light  they 
have  as  most  communities.  Intermarriage,  institutional 
training,  public  processions,  and  church  ritual  may  be 
called  the  main  pillars  of  this  work.  What  specially 
concerns  us  here  is  the  fact  that  their  missionary  does 
not  make  a  home,  but  founds  an  institution;  is  not  a 
member  of  a  family,  but  of  an  order ;  does  not  so  much 
propose  to  transform  and  elevate  the  natives  by  his 
example  and  personal  influence  as  to  save  them  by  the 
ministration  of  the  holy  offices  of  the  church. 

There  is  much  that  we  may  learn  from  these  mis- 
sions, but  all  the  more  should  we  understand  that  the 
ideal  of  Protestant  missions  is  a  different  one,  in  some 
points  directly  opposed  to  this  —  usually  higher  and 
more  difficult,  but  always  different.  Much  mis  judg- 
ment on  both  sides  would  be  avoided  were  this  radical 
difference  in  both  aim  and  method  admitted  from  the 
start. 

The  influences  of  the  Protestant  mission  are  not 
86 


HOME   AND   REST    OF    THE    MISSIONARY 

priestly,  but  personal;  the  unit  of  the  mission  is  not 
the  brotherhood  or  the  institution,  but  the  family. 
The  method  is  not  by  confession  and  sacrament,  but 
by  inspiration  and  development;  and  the  aim  is  not 
simply  conversion,  obedience,  and  the  church,  but  man- 
hood, Christhood,  and  the  kingdom  of  God. 

The  first  thing  the  Protestant  missionary  does 
among  the  heathen  is  to  establish  a  home.  He  ap- 
proaches them  not  as  a  priest,  not  simply  as  a  man, 
but  as  the  head  of  a  family,  presenting  Christianity 
quite  as  much  in  its  social  as  in  its  individual  charac- 
teristics. This  Christian  home  is  to  be  the  transform- 
ing centre  of  a  new  community.  Into  the  midst  of 
pagan  masses,  where  society  is  coagulated  rather  than 
organized,  where  homes  are  degraded  by  parental 
tyranny,  marital  multiplicity,  and  female  bondage,  he 
brings  the  leaven  of  a  redeemed  family,  which  is  to  be 
the  nucleus  of  a  redeemed  society.  The  first  conse- 
crating touch  of  the  Incarnation  rested  upon  the  fam- 
ily. It  is  still  from  the  family  that  the  influences 
which  are  to  save  men  in  heathenism  take  their  start, 
and  it  is  on  the  family  that  they  are  concentrated. 
All  the  hallowed  relationships  of  domestic  life  are  to 
be  exemplified  in  the  mission  home;  all  the  traits  of 
noble  social  character  and  intercourse  there  illustrated ; 
all  the  regenerating  influences  of  family  life  are  to 
flow  forth  from  this  spot  into  the  darkened,  deformed, 
misconstructed  communities  about.  It  is  on  this  mis- 
sion home  that  everything  else  is  founded  —  the  school, 
the  college,  the  church,  the  kingdom  itself.  The  labor- 
ers need  not  be  tied  to  one  spot,  they  may  move  about 
in  tents  and  boats;  but  the  itinerating  missionary  is 
never  so  successful  as  when  his  wife  and  children  are 
with  him  wherever  he  encamps.  While  he  preaches 
out-doors,  the  wife  goes  into  the  homes,  gathers  the 

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INTRODUCTION  TO   FOREIGN   MISSIONS 

women  about  her,  brings  a  ray  of  light  into  those 
darkened  abodes,  and  gives  them  their  first  glimpse  of 
true  womanhood.  It  is  sometimes  the  babe  in  the 
arms  that  breaks  down  barriers  that  have  resisted 
everything  else. 

When  they  are  at  their  homes,  this  new  institution, 
with  its  monogamy,  its  equality  of  man  and  woman, 
its  sympathy  between  child  and  parent,  its  cooperative 
spirit  of  industry,  its  intelligence,  its  recreation,  its 
worship,  is  at  once  a  new  revelation  and  a  striking  ob- 
ject-lesson of  the  meaning  and  possibility  of  family 
Hfe.  Whether  they  come  to  his  church  and  school  or 
not,  the  natives  seem  always  ready  to  visit  the  mis- 
sionary's home,  and  to  remain  there  so  long,  and  to 
conduct  themselves  so  familiarly,  that  it  sometimes 
becomes  necessary  to  teach  them  by  object-lesson  an- 
other feature  of  the  Christian  home  —  its  privacy. 
Nothing  more  significant  occurred  at  the  London  Con- 
ference in  1888  than  this :  When  the  Earl  of  Aberdeen 
took  the  chair  to  preside  at  the  valedictory  meeting,  he 
placed  at  his  side  Lady  Aberdeen,  his  wife.  This  was 
accepted,  and  commented  upon  as  a  culminating  illus- 
tration of  the  work  and  methods  of  missions.  It  was 
at  the  same  conference  that  Mr.  R.  Wardlaw  Thomp- 
son, Secretary  of  the  London  Missionary  Society,  ex- 
pressed himself  in  this  strong  way :  "  I  will  say,  from 
observation  in  different  parts  of  the  world,  that  one 
Christian  missionary  home  with  a  Christian  wife  does 
more  to  humanize,  elevate,  and  evangelize  a  race  of 
people  than  twenty  celibate  men.  Christianity  has  its 
sweetest  fruits  and  its  most  gracious  work  in  the  home ; 
and  from  the  home  must  radiate  its  most  powerful  in- 
fluence if  any  country  is  to  be  lastingly  influenced  by 
Christianity." 

My  own  experience  confirms  this  testimony.    I  have 


tBOME   AND   REST    OF   THE    MISSIONARY 

repeatedly  found  lonely  stations  occupied  by  one  mis- 
sionary family  the  solitary  beacon  of  light  in  the  dark- 
ness and  shadow  of  death.  The  members  of  the  family 
have  comforted  and  sustained  one  another  at  home, 
they  have  cooperated  with  one  another  abroad.  While 
the  husband  has  travelled  and  preached  and  taught, 
the  wife  has  gathered  the  women  together  on  the  ve- 
randa of  the  bungalow  and  taught  them  sewing,  lace- 
making,  singing,  and  reading.  The  daughter  has  taken 
charge  of  the  girl's  school,  and  in  her  father's  absence 
has  even  been  paymaster  for  the  station.  On  the  other 
hand,  when  the  wife  has  had  no  interest  in  or  adapta- 
tion for  the  work_,  her  husband's  usefulness  has  been 
hopelessly  crippled.     Such  cases  are,  fortunately,  rare. 

If  we  once  heartily  accept  this  distinctive  feature  of 
Protestant  missions,  we  shall  cease  to  apologize  for 
what  it  involves.  It  is  probable  that  brotherhoods 
and  sisterhoods,  or  communities  of  bachelor  mission- 
aries, have  an  important  sphere,  even  in  Protestant 
missions.  It  is  certain  that  celibate  life,  which  was 
once  hardly  permitted  on  our  mission  fields,  is  com- 
mon now  for  both  sexes.  It  has  its  own  advantages. 
Zenana  workers,  school-teachers,  and  lay  evangelists 
may  often  well  be  unmarried.  The  rule  and  the  ideal, 
however,  must  remain  the  family. 

If  the  family,  in  its  very  existence,  is  an  important 
mission  agent,  having  a  distinct  work  to  do,  not  only 
for  its  own  members  but  for  the  natives,  whether 
Christian  or  heathen,  especially  serving  as  an  object- 
lesson  of  all  the  choicest  fruits  and  privileges  of  Chris- 
tianity, then  there  must  be  a  distinct  acceptance  of 
this  office  by  its  members,  and  it  must  play  its  part 
in  the  outreaching  work  of  the  missionary.  The  na- 
tives must  be  brought  in  contact  with  this  domestic 
sphere.     The  walls  of  the  home  should  be  at  least 


INTRODUCTION   TO   FOREIGN   MISSIONS 

translucent,  that  its  light  may  Gontinualiy  shine  through 
to  them ;  its  doors  should  be  often  open,  its  table  often 
spread  for  them;  a  distinct  social  as  well  as  Chris- 
tian fellowship  should  be  cultivated.  It  is  a  peculiar, 
delicate,  and  difficult  work.  Those  who  succeed  in 
other  spheres  may  fail  entirely  here.  The  social  and 
official  relations  of  the  missionaries  to  one  another, 
and  their  personal  and  social  relations  to  the  natives, 
are  really  the  most  embarrassing  parts  of  a  mission- 
ary's life.  The  problem  is  how  to  stamp  the  impress 
of  their  own  Christian  domestic  life  on  the  homes 
about  them  in  such  a  way  that,  while  neither  loses  its 
distinctive  national  type,  the  oriental  home  shall  be 
Christianized  by  the  example  of  the  occidental  home. 
The  results  of  this  work  are  not  seen  in  the  reports 
of  the  societies.  They  cannot  be  tabulated  —  they  are 
seldom  known ;  but  very  much  is  accomplished.  The 
failure,  where  there  is  any,  arises  not  so  much  from 
lack  of  disposition  as  from  the  lack  either  of  personal 
adaptation  to  such  a  work  or  of  an  appreciation  of 
its  importance.  The  subject  deserves  a  much  more 
careful  study  in  all  missionary  conferences  than  has 
been  yet  given  to  it. 

In  the  social  intercourse  between  a  superior  and  an 
inferior  race  facts  of  difference  cannot  be  ignored. 
How  preserve  dignity  without  assumption?  How 
avoid  familiarity  without  stiffness  and  offence?  How 
Christianize  without  Europeanizing  the  Chinese  or 
Indian  home?  How  prevent  the  outward  imitation 
of  habits  and  surroundings  injurious  to  the  native 
simplicity  and  economy  of  life  while  persuading  to 
the  adoption  of  Christian  relations  and  sentiments, 
and  of  such  habits  as  will  be  most  conducive  to  these? 
How,  finally,  keep  an  open  door  for  the  natives  and 
allow  them  to  receive  the  example  and  influence  of 

90 


HOME   AND   REST   OF   THE   MISSIONARY 

missionary  home-life  by  sharing  it,  and  at  the  same 
time  preserve  that  sacred  seclusion  which  makes  home 
a  home,  a  harbor  of  refuge  for  the  harassed  laborer, 
who  seeks  within  it  that  quiet,  rest,  and  refreshment 
of  which  none  have  sorer  need  than  the  foreign  mis- 
sionary? It  is  right  here,  to  my  mind,  that  the  most 
searching  and  delicate  test  of  the  true  missionary  is 
found.  The  official  work,  whether  teaching,  preach- 
ing, healing,  or  translating,  can  be  done  from  the 
simple  sense  of  duty.  But  to  overcome  the  instinctive 
shrinking  from  people  of  another  race,  to  welcome 
within  the  domestic  enclosure  all  sorts  of  people,  to 
render  one's  self  liable  to  every  form  of  interruption 
and  intrusion,  and  to  have  one's  time  frittered  away 
by  talk  with  individuals  when  he  would  be  reaching 
the  masses  or  training  the  leaders  —  this  personal 
work  in  the  home  can  be  made  possible  and  delight- 
ful only  by  enthusiasm  for  Christ's  work  of  saving 
men,  joined  to  a  personal  attachment  for  the  people 
whose  life  one  has  come  to  share.  When,  in  one  or 
two  cases,  missionaries,  otherwise  excellent  and  use- 
ful, have  confessed  that  they  could  not  get  rid  of  an 
aversion  to  the  people  for  whom  they  were  so  con- 
scientiously working,  I  have  been  amazed  that  they 
could  accomplish  as  much  as  they  were  doing.  Yet 
in  India  there  is  so  much  contempt  manifested  for 
the  natives  by  English  official  and  mercantile  classes 
that  one  who  associates  much  with  them  is  apt  to 
be  infected  with  their  spirit,  and  find  himself  secretly 
despising  the  people  whom  he  has  come  to  save. 

The  Protestant  does  not  go  out,  like  the  Roman 
Catholic,  detached  from  all  bonds  of  country,  society, 
and  family  —  a  member  only  of  an  order,  bound  by 
no  higher,  perhaps  no  other,  allegiance  than  that  to 
his  church.     Though  he  leaves  country,  friends,  and 

91 


INTRODUCTION   TO   FOREIGN   MISSIONS 

home,  and  exiles  himself  for  life,  in  taking  his  family 
he  takes  bonds  that  bind  him  to  his  native  land  and  to 
western  civilization.  He  must  not  become  an  Asiatic ; 
he  must  remain  a  European,  an  American.  If  the 
missionary  requires  to  be  orientalized  in  order  to  be 
successful,  then  the  Protestant  ideal  of  missions  must 
be  given  up,  and  the  missionary  must  become  a  cel- 
ibate. The  family  cannot  be  torn  from  its  roots  in 
vi^estern  civilization.  The  missionary  occupation  is 
not  hereditary.  The  children  belong  to  the  West,  and 
should  return  to  the  West.  They  simply  cannot  be 
brought  up  on  the  mission  field.  The  eastern  climate 
is,  in  most  cases,  against  them;  there  is  little  oppor- 
tunity for  European  training;  much  early  intercourse 
w^ith  the  natives  is  undesirable;  the  spiritual  atmo- 
sphere of  heathenism  is  malarial.  It  is  even  claimed 
that  children  of  missionaries  make  poor  missionaries 
themselves,  for  the  reason  that,  having  been  brought 
up  with  the  natives,  they  have  an  unfavorable  opinion 
of  them,  and  do  not  treat  them  with  the  consideration 
accorded  by  those  who  have  never  been  on  so  familiar 
terms  with  them.  I  am  not  prepared  to  indorse  this 
statement,  but  simply  give  it  for  what  it  is  worth. 
This  much  is  certain:  that,  so  long  as  they  remain 
on  the  mission  field,  the  children  should  have  all  pos- 
sible advantages  of  an  occidental  Christian  home,  that 
they  may  go  to  their  own  land  for  further  education, 
not  as  aliens  left  hopelessly  in  the  rear  and  unfitted 
to  return  should  they  ever  adopt  the  mission  career; 
for,  apart  from  the  possibility  already  mentioned,  they 
should  and  do  have  both  predilection  and  pre-adapta- 
tion  for  the  foreign  work.  Remaining  under  parental 
care  in  the  mission  home  as  long  as  possible,  they 
should  there  find  the  reproduction  of  western  life, 
there  receive  western  training  and  follow  western  cus- 

92 


HOME   AND   REST   OF   THE    MISSIONARY 

toms,  until  sent  to  their  own  land  for  all  that  the 
West  can  give. 

There  is  another  fact  which  has  an  important  bear- 
ing on  the  character  of  this  home.  The  missionary 
stands  in  the  East  as  the  representative  of  the  West; 
of  the  best  of  the  West  —  its  most  progressive  life, 
its  latest  achievements,  its  freshest  developments.  In 
all  his  teaching  he  communicates  western  knowledge, 
whether  biblical,  scientific,  or  literary.  He  imparts 
the  special  results  of  the  development  of  the  western 
churches,  and  is  the  transmitter  of  western  institutions 
and  philanthropies.  He  works  from  the  level  of  a 
highly  civilized  occidental  Christian,  who  has  acquired 
by  inheritance  and  instruction  certain  gifts,  faculties, 
traits,  and  habits,  which  make  him  what  he  is,  in 
which  he  has  his  life,  through  which  he  does  his  work. 
Living  in  the  East,  he  cannot  be  sundered  from  the 
West,  but  is  thrust  forward  as  a  distant  outpost-mem- 
ber, still  connected  with  its  life.  As  one  called  on 
thus  to  mediate  between  East  and  West,  to  impart 
western  life  in  all  its  highest,  divinest  essence  to  the 
communities  about  him,  the  missionary,  for  the  Asi- 
atic's sake,  as  well  as  for  his  own  and  his  family's 
sake,  must  keep  himself  in  touch  with  that  throbbing, 
growing  life.  The  communication  between  East  and 
West  must  be  kept  open,  and  the  home  in  the  East 
must  in  all  essential  respects  be  maintained  as  a  west- 
ern home. 

Imagine  for  a  moment  that  some  devoted  mission- 
ary family  believes  that  duty  calls  them  to  cut  them- 
selves off  from  contact  with  western  life,  and,  forget- 
ting all  else,  to  simply  live  as  the  natives  do,  immersing 
themselves  in  the  eastern  life  around  them.  One 
decade  passes,  and  what  changes  have  come  to  the 
church  at  home !    The  temperance  work  has  advanced ; 

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INTRODUCTION   TO   FOREIGN   MISSIONS 

Sunday-school  work  has  grown;  the  Young  Men's 
Christian  Association  has  expanded  marvellously. 
Work  for  and  by  women,  work  for  and  by  the  laity, 
work  for  and  by  young  people  —  all  these  things  are 
new  developments.  There  are  new  methods  of  study- 
ing the  Bible,  and  there  is  progress  in  theology  and  in 
the  administration  of  the  churches.  There  is  also  ad- 
vance in  the  methods  of  mission  work,  through  the 
experiences  of  other  countries,  of  which  one  can  learn 
only  through  the  West.  Of  all  this  the  purely  oriental- 
ized missionary  has  no  idea.  Even  those  who  attempt 
to  keep  up  with  the  march  of  God's  kingdom  find  it 
hard  enough  to  do  so.  A  returned  missionary  feels 
himself  at  first  a  stranger  among  so  many  changes. 
One  of  the  brightest  women  on  the  mission  field  says 
the  greatest  change  is  in  regard  to  the  position  and 
work  of  women,  and  after  an  absence  of  a  decade  or 
more  she  hardly  knows  how  to  adjust  herself  to  the 
new  requirements.  There  are  some  mission  stations, 
composed  mainly  of  older  men,  whose  intercourse  with 
the  home-land  has  been  less  than  usual,  where  I  felt 
myself  among  those  who  were  distinctly  working  from 
the  standpoint  of  a  generation  ago.  The  ideas,  the 
text-books,  the  methods,  the  church  life  and  forms 
were  all  back-numbers.  Little  harm  in  that,  some 
may  say,  where  the  whole  of  the  Christian  life  has  to 
be  acquired. 

But  the  mischief  is  right  here.  Some  time  the  lead- 
ers of  the  young  church  must  come  in  contact  with 
modern  ideas  and  movements.  Then  they  will  dis- 
cover how  different  is  the  life  of  to-day  from  that  of 
the  last  generation.  And  they  will  cease  to  regard 
their  former  instructors  as  competent  leaders,  even  if 
they  do  not  denounce  them  for  teaching  outworn  and 
rejected  doctrines  and  practices.     To  take  a  single 

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HOME  AND   REST   OF   THE   MISSIONARY 

instance:  I  have  received  complaints  from  pastors  in 
Asiatic  Turkey  because  the  missionaries  had  not  been 
willing  to  countenance  the  churches  in  any  observance 
of  Christmas  and  Easter.  From  the  New  England 
standpoint  of  a  generation  ago,  as  also  from  that  of 
the  idolatrous  eastern  churches,  it  is  not  difficult  to 
understand  and  appreciate  this  unwillingness.  But 
one  who  knows  the  present  practices  of  our  churches 
in  that  respect  would  not  doubt  that  there  might  be 
found  a  way  of  gratifying  the  natural  desire  of  Chris- 
tians to  honor  the  day  of  the  birth  and  resurrection 
of  their  Lord  without  countenancing  idolatry. 

There  is  yet  a  deeper  consideration  involved.  It 
should  certainly  be  possible,  as  it  is  also  most  desira- 
ble, for  the  church  of  the  West  to  impart  to  the 
churches  of  Asia  now  coming  into  being  the  essential 
results  of  its  struggles,  battles,  and  development.  Our 
nineteen  centuries  should  give  the  fruit  of  the  ages 
into  their  hands  at  the  start.  Why  should  it  be  neces- 
sary for  them  to  fight  over  again  our  battles  already 
won,  to  make  all  our  experiments,  fall  into  our  errors, 
and  encounter  all  our  hindrances  and  defeats?  Ex- 
periments, battles,  divisions,  and  mistakes  enough  of 
their  own  they  will  make,  but  surely  the  weapons  we 
have  forged,  the  main  results  we  have  reached,  are 
gains  for  the  world  at  large.  The  new  Christianity  of 
the  East  should  be  able  to  start  from  the  level  of  the 
twentieth  century.  The  power  of  the  laity,  of  women, 
of  the  young,  as  agents  for  the  progress  of  the  gospel 
—  these  are  largely  discoveries  of  our  time.  Such  dis- 
coveries, and  many  others  of  like  importance,  should 
be  utilized  in  the  East  as  well  as  in  the  West,  for  the 
laity,  the  women,  the  young  of  the  churches  of  Asia, 
that  it  may  not  take  them  nineteen  centuries  to  learn 
the  principles  of  temperance  reform,  of  philanthropic 

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INTRODUCTION  TO   FOREIGN   MISSIONS 

endeavor,  and  of  the  use  of  the  agencies  for  church 
work  that  he  close  at  hand.  Wherever  theology,  too, 
has  advanced  to  any  clearer  comprehension  and  utiliza- 
tion of  revelation,  these  gains  should  be  at  the  service 
of  the  young  church. 

"  What  has  all  this  to  do  with  the  character  of  the 
missionary  home  ?  "  it  may  be  asked.  It  has  very  much 
to  do,  I  reply.  It  affects  the  whole  ideal  of  mission 
life.  It  simply  emphasizes  the  necessity  and  duty  of 
the  missionary  family  to  remain  in  close  contact  with 
the  rapid  movements  of  western  life.  They  may  not 
become  orientalized.  They  are  always  to  remain  occi- 
dentals, strangers  among  a  strange  people  —  not  men 
without  a  country,  but  foreign  merchants  continually 
dealing  in  the  wares  of  their  native  land,  continually 
dependent  upon  a  fresh  supply  of  the  latest  goods.  It 
might  be  possible  for  an  exceptional  single  man  to  be 
orientalized  without  loss  of  tone,  but  to  orientalize  the 
home  means,  for  a  western  family,  not  simply  loss  of 
power,  not  simply  discomfort  or  suffering:  it  means 
degradation. 

What,  then,  does  a  western  home  in  the  East  in- 
volve? It  involves  not  a  house  like  his  neighbors, 
very  often  not  a  native  house  at  all,  but  one  adapted 
at  once  to  the  climate  of  the  country,  and  to  the  health 
and  peculiar  needs  of  a  foreigner  in  a  strange,  often 
tropical  and  sickly  climate.  The  foreign  mission- 
house  should  be  larger,  roomier,  more  comfortable, 
more  permanent  than  the  home  mission-house,  which 
is  built  as  a  temporary  abode  for  one  who  resides  in  a 
familiar  and  favorable  climate  among  his  own  people, 
who  may  soon  be  able  to  do  better  for  him,  while  the 
natives  will  never  be  asked  to  do  anything  in  that  way 
for  their  missionary.  The  furniture  of  the  West 
should  be  there.    He  should  not  be  expected  to  sit  on 

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HOME   AND    REST    OF   THE    MISSIONARY 

the  floor,  sleep  on  a  mat,  or  eat  from  a  plate  of  plantain 
leaves,  or  with  chopsticks,  or  his  fingers,  though  he 
should  be  able  and  ready  to  do  all  this  when  there  is 
occasion.  He  should  have  the  books,  periodicals,  pic- 
tures, and  musical  instruments  of  his  own  country. 
In  short,  he  should  have  a  little  bit  of  America  or 
Europe  set  right  down  in  a  heathen  land,  which  is  to 
be  the  centre  of  this  work,  the  sure  retreat  for  sleep, 
rest,  and  family  worship. 

Do  I  seem  to  be  tearing  the  heart  from  the  mission 
work,  and  intimating  that  he  should  not  deny  himself 
and  bear  his  cross,  but  live  a  luxurious  life?  Where, 
then,  is  the  self-denial  of  pastors  and  Christians 
throughout  this  land  of  comfortable  homes?  To  put 
one's  self  under  those  circumstances  which  best  fit  one 
for  the  performance  of  his  duties  surely  does  not  conflict 
with  true  self-denial  any  more  abroad  than  at  home.  The 
points  at  stake  are:  greatest  health  and  efficiency  of 
body,  mind,  and  soul;  highest  lift  and  fullest  flow  of 
life  to  impart  to  others ;  rest  and  refreshment  in  weari- 
ness ;  proper  care  for  the  wife,  who  is  a  fellow-mission- 
ary; wisest  training  for  the  children,  who  keep  their 
birthright  in  their  native  land,  and  are  soon  to  return 
thither ;  and  intimate  connection  with  the  home-church, 
which  the  missionary  may  often  revisit  and  help  to 
instruct.  These  are  the  requirements  which  call  for  a 
healthy,  comfortable,  happy  eastern  home  for  the  mis- 
sionary family.  Anything  else  is  not  economy  for  the 
church  at  home  any  more  than  for  the  workers.  Econ- 
omy demands  that  our  agents  abroad  be  kept  in  the 
best  possible  condition  for  their  tremendous  work. 
Western  farmers  lose  hundreds  of  thousands  of  dol- 
lars every  year  simply  through  neglecting  to  properly 
house  their  farming  implements.  Let  us  not  repeat 
their  mistake  with  human  tools. 

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INTRODUCTION    TO    FOREIGN    MISSIONS 

That  there  may  be  individuals  who  have  a  tendency, 
even  among  Protestants,  to  cehbate,  even  to  ascetic 
Hfe  on  the  mission  field,  I  should  not  care  to  deny,  but 
it  would  be  exceptional.  The  Rev.  George  Bowen  was 
one  of  those  exceptions,  and  I  found  the  influence  of 
his  self-denying  life  of  faith  great  among  the  natives. 
But  it  was  not  greater  than  that  of  Dr.  Duff,  the  well- 
fed  and  hearty  missionary,  or  Donald  McLeod,  the 
civilian,  whose  picture  a  sect  of  Hindus  was  discov- 
ered honoring  with  idolatrous  worship,  and  of  whom 
a  Brahmin  said  that  if  all  Englishmen  were  like  Don- 
ald McLeod,  all  Hindus  would  be  Christians.  Their 
self-denial  took  other  forms.  Nor  was  the  work  of 
Mr.  Bowen  a  success.  Giving  up  all  salary  and  all 
comforts,  he  reduced  his  expenses  so  low  that  his  an- 
nual outlay  did  not  probably  exceed  $150.  I  found 
him  editing  a  little  newspaper,  and  living  in  the  most 
simple  and  frugal  way  possible.  But  after  he  had  been 
doing  this  for  a  dozen  or  more  years  he  was  asked  by 
Bishop  Thoburn  whether  the  experiment  had  proved 
successful.  He  replied,  in  substance,  "  I  have  not  been 
wholly  disappointed,  but  I  have  not  been  successful 
enough  to  make  me  feel  like  advising  any  one  to  fol- 
low my  example.  I  have  discovered  that  the  gulf 
which  separates  the  people  of  this  country  from  us  is 
not  a  social  one  at  all ;  it  is  simply  the  great  impassable 
gulf  which  separates  between  the  religion  of  Christ 
and  an  unbelieving  world." 

The  Indian  Churchman,  the  High  Church  organ  of 
Calcutta,  gives  testimony  of  the  same  sort,  and  most 
remarkable  when  we  consider  the  source  from  which 
it  comes :  "  Mr.  Bowen  spent  a  long  life  in  the  native 
quarter  of  Bombay,  adapting  himself  in  almost  every 
particular  to  the  habits  of  the  natives;  he  got  ad- 
miration from  his  countrymen,  respect  and  affection 


HOME    AND    REST    OF    THE    MISSIONARY 

from  the  heathen  -^  everything  but  converts.  Father 
O'Neill  again,  in  another  part  of  India,  submitted  him- 
self with  the  utmost  self-denial  to  hardships  which  few 
Europeans  would  be  physically  able  to  bear;  yet  he 
likewise  baptized  scarcely  a  single  person." 

If  to  prove  our  self-denial  we  must  vie  with  the 
Hindus  in  asceticism,  we  might  as  well  give  it  up. 
We  could  die,  but  we  could  not  live,  as  they  can,  least 
of  all  work,  in  such  a  life.  A  young  missionary  who 
scouted  the  extravagance  of  his  brethren  while  tour- 
ing started  out  once  with  only  his  blanket,  determined 
to  show  the  natives  that  a  Christian  could  live  as  sim- 
ply as  their  own  three  millions  of  devotees.  But  while 
he  lay  wrapped  in  his  blanket  the  first  night  one  of 
those  same  devotees  approached  him,  and  in  a  tone 
of  disgust  inquired  why  he  used  a  blanket,  as  it  was 
quite  unnecessary.  That  was  the  cause  of  his  throw- 
ing away,  not  his  blanket,  but  his  ascetic  theories. 
Writes  Monier- Williams :  "  No  Christian  man  can  for 
a  moment  hope  to  compete  with  any  religious  native 
of  India,  Hindu  or  Mohammedan,  who  may  enter  on 
a  course  of  fasting,  abstinence,  and  bodily  maceration. 
The  constant  action  of  a  tropical  climate,  and  the  pecu- 
liar social  habits  of  the  sons  of  the  soil  in  the  eastern 
countries,  continued  for  centuries,  have  induced  a  con- 
dition of  body  that  enables  them  to  practise  the  most 
severe  and  protracted  abstinence  with  impunity  and 
even  with  benefit,  while  Europeans,  who,  with  a  view 
of  increasing  their  influence,  endeavor  to  set  an  ex- 
ample of  self-mortification,  find  themselves  quite  out- 
done and  hopelessly  left  in  the  rear  by  a  thousand 
devotees  in  every  city  of  India,  who  fast,  not  as  a 
penitential  exercise,  but  as  a  means  of  accumulating 
religious  merit."  "  By  adopting  the  ascetic  life  of 
devotees,"   wrote   Dr.   Murray   Mitchell,   "  we  might 

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INTRODUCTION   TO    FOREIGN    MISSIONS 

doubtless  make  hundreds  of  converts  where  we  now 
make  tens;  but  that  would  be  to  try  to  make  them 
Christians  by  renouncing  Christianity."  There  is  no 
reason,  then,  for  attempting  to  make  heathen  live  like 
Christians  by  making  Christians  live  like  heathen. 

I  have  quoted  from  missionaries  and  scholars ;  let 
me  also  quote  from  an  article  in  the  Contemporary 
Review,  by  Mr.  Meredith  Townsend,  an  Anglo-Indian 
official  of  high  character  and  ability.  He  is  discussing 
the  proposition  made  by  some  that  the  salaries  of  mis- 
sionaries shall  be  reduced  to  about  one-third  the  pres- 
ent amount,  and  they  themselves  be  required  to  live 
like  the  natives.  An  unmarried  missionary,  he  admits, 
may  do  this  for  a  time  while  serving  his  apprentice- 
ship. But  then  he  will  learn  that  he  cannot  ask  a 
woman  to  share  this  life  with  him.  "  She  would  be 
simply  a  household  servant  in  the  tropics,  the  most 
unendurable  of  earthly  positions,  without  good  air, 
without  domestic  help,  without  good  medical  attend- 
ance, and  without  the  respect  of  the  people  among 
whom  her  husband  labors.  They  understand  real  as- 
ceticism perfectly  well,  and  reverence  it  as  the  subju- 
gation of  the  flesh ;  and  if  the  missionaries  carried  out 
the  ascetic  life  as  Hindus  understand  it  —  lived  in  a 
hut,  half  or  wholly  naked,  sought  no  food  but  what 
was  given  them,  and  suffered  daily  some  visible  phys- 
ical pain  —  they  might  stir  up  the  reverence  which  the 
Hindu  pays  to  those  who  are  palpably  superior  to 
human  needs.  But  in  their  eyes  there  is  no  asceticism 
in  the  life  of  a  mean  white,  but  only  the  squalor,  un- 
becoming a  teacher  and  one  who  professes,  and  must 
profess,  scholarly  cultivation.  Even  if  the  cheap  mis- 
sionary could  induce  a  fitting  wife  to  share  such  a  lot, 
he  will  think  of  the  children  to  come,  and  perceive 
from  examples  all  around  him  what,  on  such  an  in- 

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HOME   AND    REST    OF   THE    MISSIONARY 

come,  their  fate  must  be.  They  will  be  boys  and  girls 
with  the  white  energy  who  have  been  bred  as  natives 
—  that  is,  they  will,  unless  exceptional  persons,  belong 
to  the  most  hopeless  class  in  the  world.  They  cannot 
be  sent  home  or  be  kept  in  the  hill  schools,  or  in  any 
way  separated  from  the  perpetual  contact  with  an  Asi- 
atic civilization  which  eats  out  of  white  children  their 
distinctive  morale.  But  for  his  highest  usefulness  he 
must  marry.  The  people  do  not  believe  in  celibacy, 
except  as  a  matter  of  religious  obligation,  and  if  single 
he  is  suspected  and  watched.  The  opinion  of  the  ex- 
perienced ought  to  be  sufficient,  and  that  opinion  is 
utterly  fatal  to  any  such  scheme.  A  missionary  is  not 
made  more  efficient  by  being  sacrificed  every  day  with 
the  squalid  troubles  of  extreme  poverty,  and  the  notion 
that  his  low  position  will  bring  him  closer  to  the  native 
is  the  merest  delusion.  The  white  missionary  is  not 
separated  from  the  Indian  by  his  means,  but  by  his 
color,  and  the  differences  produced  by  a  thousand 
years  of  differing  civilizations  which  the  word  color 
implies.  He  is  a  European  —  those  to  whom  he 
preaches  are  Asiatics;  in  presence  of  that  distinction 
all  others  are  not  only  trivial  but  imperceptible.  The 
effect  of  the  cheap  missionary,  then,  on  the  native 
mind  will  be  precisely  that  of  the  dear  missionary, 
except  that,  as  an  unmarried  man,  he  will  be  regarded 
with  infinitely  more  suspicion  and  mistrust." 

The  whole  matter  is  well  summed  up  in  a  resolution 
adopted  by  the  London  Missionary  Society,  after  it 
had  been  giving  special  investigation  to  this  and  kin- 
dred topics :  "  While  recognizing  the  expediency  of 
employing  in  special  circumstances  and  for  a  limited 
time  unmarried  men  as  missionaries,  the  committee 
emphatically  indorse  the  opinion,  expressed  to  them 
very  decidedly  by  some  of  our  most  experienced  mis- 

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INTRODUCTION   TO   FOREIGN   MISSIONS 

sionaries,  that  the  labor  and  influence  of  missionaries' 
wives,  and  the  wholesome  and  happy  example  of 
Christian  home-life,  are  among  the  most  important 
means  of  successful  missionary  effort." 

Just  here,  indeed,  in  the  point  touched  by  Mr.  Town- 
send,  we  reach  one  of  the  many  limitations  of  the  mis- 
sionary work.  The  European  missionary  cannot  alto- 
gether adapt  himself  to  the  Asiatics;  he  cannot  quite 
be  an  Indian  to  the  Indians,  or  a  Chinaman  to  the  Chi- 
nese. He  must  always  remain  a  foreigner.  But  he 
can  plant  the  native  church,  whose  office  it  is  to  take 
up  the  work  committed  to  it  by  the  mission  and  carry 
it  on,  as  only  a  native  church  can  do.  This  limitation 
is  a  most  happy  one,  both  for  the  foreigner  and  the 
native. 

There  is  yet  one  other  reason  for  giving  the  mis- 
sionary home  all  the  cheer  and  comfort  it  can  contain. 
None  but  those  who  have  experienced  it  can  know 
how  subtle,  mighty,  and  pervasive  is  the  demoraliz- 
ing influence  of  contiguous  heathenism.  The  mis- 
sionary himself,  whatever  may  be  done  for  his  chil- 
dren, must  come  in  ceaseless  contact  and  conflict  with 
it.  It  is  inevitable  that  he  should  suffer  from  the  very 
touch  of  the  unclean  thing.  A  distinguished  and  cou- 
rageous clergyman  of  New  York  has  expressed  in  the 
strongest  terms  his  sense  of  the  personal  degradation 
he  felt  in  witnessing  the  midnight  orgies  of  disorderly 
houses,  which,  in  his  capacity  as  president  of  the  So- 
ciety for  the  Suppression  of  Crime,  he  felt  himself 
called  upon  to  visit  and  expose.  But  the  whole  life  of 
many  a  missionary,  especially  in  India,  must  be  spent 
in  communities  whose  very  religion  and  temple-wor- 
ship is  suffused  with  the  spirit  of  animalism  and 
sensuality.  Daily  compelled  to  witness  abominations 
of  the  vilest  sort,  not  only  is  his  own  life  drained  of 

103 


HOME   AND   REST   OF   THE    MISSIONARY 

sympathy  and  vitality,  but  the  infection  of  the  thing 
he  hates  steals  upon  his  soul.  He  is  like  a  physician 
in  the  midst  of  an  epidemic.  He  stands  alone.  The 
interlacing  spiritual  bonds  of  a  Christian  community, 
which  bear  us  up  as  in  a  net  of  safety,  are  withdrawn 
from  him.  The  native  church  itself  is  dripping  with 
the  foul  waters  of  heathenism  from  which  it  has  just 
emerged.  The  one  means  of  safety  for  himself  and 
his  children  is  the  Christian  home,  where  everything 
breathes  the  simple  refinement,  the  domestic  purity, 
the  personal  culture  and  elevation  of  his  own  land. 
Let  this,  then,  be  his  earthly  haven  and  heaven,  full 
of  the  flowers  and  fruits  and  graces  of  the  Christian 
life,  as  an  antidote  against  the  encroaching  heathen- 
ism without. 

The  mission-houses  in  Japan  are  almost  always  built 
in  foreign  style.  European  furniture  and  boots  spoil 
their  delicate  woodwork  and  light  mats.  In  Korea  and 
China  the  more  substantial  native  houses  are  easily 
adapted  to  European  needs,  though  it  is  often  more 
economical  to  build.  The  mission  bungalows  in  India 
differ  from  those  in  any  country  I  have  seen.  The 
intense  heat  of  eight  months  of  the  year,  the  violence 
of  the  rainy  season,  the  inroads  of  the  white  ants  and 
other  insects,  call  for  spacious,  shady  houses,  with 
high  ceilings,  large  rooms,  and  wide  verandas,  capa- 
ble of  being  shut  in  from  the  light  and  heat  of  the  day. 
Punkahs,  or  broad  swinging  fans,  must  be  suspended 
from  the  ceiling.  Sometimes  during  the  hot  season 
these  are  kept  moving  all  night  as  well  as  all  day.  The 
life  of  children  may  depend  on  this  constant  use  of 
the  punkah.  There  must  be  many  servants,  for  caste 
and  custom  have  taught  each  to  do  but  a  certain  part 
of  the  work;  and  if  the  missionary's  wife  is  to  help 
him  in  his  mission  labors,  she  must  not  spend  her 

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INTRODUCTION   TO   FOREIGN   MISSIONS 

strength  in  that  which  four  or  five  servants  can  do  for 
her.  Family  worship  becomes  a  special  feature  and  of 
missionary  importance.  It  is  attended  by  all  the  serv- 
ants, who  participate  in  reading,  singing,  and  prayer 
in  the  vernacular.  Many  of  these  servants  are  thus 
converted.  It  is  one  of  the  first  fields  of  missionary 
labor,  and  often  the  first  church  is  the  church  in  the 
house. 

But  enrich  and  sweeten  the  missionary  home  as 
much  as  we  may,  something  more  is  needed.  It  is 
often  the  thronged  centre  of  church  helpers,  native 
Christians,  and  heathen  inquirers,  besides  the  many 
visitors  who  flock  there  from  simple  curiosity,  or  for 
the  purpose  of  seeking  material  help.  It  is  filled  with 
the  labors  of  school  and  work  of  all  the  dozen  differ- 
ent departments  in  a  missionary's  life.  It  is  down  on 
the  hot,  steaming,  malarial  plains,  or  in  the  noisy, 
filthy  city,  which  at  certain  portions  of  the  year  be- 
comes pestilential.  If  the  missionary  is  to  live  and 
continue  his  labors  he  must  get  away  from  his  work 
and  its  associations,  from  all  the  burden  of  the  mis- 
sion, and  from  contact  with  the  native  life.  A  great 
number  of  missions  have,  therefore,  secured  sanitaria 
in  some  favored  accessible  spot. 

In  India  the  whole  government  moves  bodily,  bag 
and  baggage,  from  Calcutta  to  Simla,  a  thousand  miles 
away  and  7000  feet  above  the  sea,  in  the  Himalayas. 
Every  year  the  transfer  forth  and  back  is  made.  Five 
months  are  spent  in  Calcutta,  seven  months  in  Simla. 
Most  of  this  time,  while  English  officials  are  doing 
their  work  in  the  cool  mountain  air,  their  kinsmen, 
the  missionaries,  are  trying  to  work  and  live  in  the 
terrible  heats  below,  with  their  swinging  punkahs, 
dripping  water,  darkened  rooms,  and  every  other  de- 
vice to  make  Hfe  possible  and  tolerable.     If  the  few 

104 


HOME   AND   REST   OF   THE    MISSIONARY 

worst  weeks  of  the  year  can  be  spent  at  a  mountain 
sanitarium,  who  will  not  think  it  a  wise  economy  of 
time  and  money  and  men?  That  there  are  now  so 
many  such  sanitaria  to  offer  refuge  to  our  brethren 
is  one  more  proof  that  missionary  management  has 
become  a  science,  missionary  life  a  profession. 

But  with  all  the  help  of  their  homes  and  their  sani- 
taria, there  comes  to  most,  sooner  or  later,  if  they 
remain  at  their  post,  a  breakdown  —  a  time  when  only 
one  thing  will  enable  a  man  longer  to  carry  on  the 
work  or  save  himself  from  collapse.  That  one  thing 
is  a  visit  to  his  native  land.  It  is  far  better,  far 
cheaper,  if  you  choose  to  look  at  it  in  that  way,  if  this 
furlough  can  anticipate  the  collapse.  The  children, 
too,  must  be  taken  home  for  education  and  intercourse 
with  other  children.  The  wife  and  mother  requires 
rest.  She  longs  for  the  sight  of  her  friends.  All  need 
to  be  delivered  for  a  time  from  the  atmosphere  of  hea- 
thenism rushing  in  at  every  pore,  and  to  be  strength- 
ened and  quickened  by  contact  with  the  great  throb- 
bing heart  of  Christendom.  The  church  at  home  has 
progressed.  In  order  truly  to  represent  it  the  mis- 
sionary must  keep  touch  and  pace  with  it.  Often  he 
has  some  important  enterprise  which  he  is  to  push 
through  in  his  own  country,  or  he  is  to  represent  the 
claims  of  the  entire  mission  on  the  home  board  and 
the  church.  More  laborers  are  wanted,  and  he  can 
best  hunt  them  up. 

The  church  at  home,  too,  needs  to  see  and  hear  its 
laborers  on  the  fields  of  Asia  and  Africa  and  the 
islands.  Nothing  gives  such  reality  and  interest  to 
missions  as  to  meet  a  live  missionary  who  knows  how 
to  give  a  living  picture  of  his  work.  It  is  true  indeed 
that  not  every  missionary  is  able  to  do  this.  It  is  not 
always  the  best  speakers  who  are  the  best  workers,  not 
.       105 


INTRODUCTION   TO   FOREIGN    MISSIONS 

the  best  workers  who  are  the  best  speakers.  A  mis- 
sionary must  often  pay  the  penalty  of  his  devotion  to 
his  own  particular  work  by  becoming  narrow  and  ec- 
centric, or  ill-adapted  to  speak  to  the  church  at  home. 
His  mind  moves  in  realms  unfamiliar  to  us,  while 
from  our  interests  he  is  disconnected.  He  does  not 
feel  himself  en  rapport  with  his  audience.  Most  men, 
too,  in  all  professions  are  private  soldiers,  doing  well 
their  own  part,  but  knowing  little  how  the  battle  goes 
which  they  are  helping  to  decide.  A  few  men  are  gen- 
erals, who  can  at  once  direct  the  battle  and  report  on 
its  progress. 

Right  here,  however,  is  a  point  where  the  interest 
of  home  pastors  and  of  all  who  help  shape  the  senti- 
ment and  the  management  of  missions  should  be  en- 
listed. The  need  of  these  home  furloughs  is  perfectly 
obvious.  The  statistics  of  the  different  fields  show 
just  how  long  the  average  missionary  can  work  before 
the  first  breakdown  comes.  For  China  it  is  a  trifle 
over,  for  Japan  a  trifle  under,  seven  years,  with  a 
shorter  time  in  each  case  for  women.  For  India  the 
time  is  somewhat  longer.  For  Turkey  I  have  no  sta- 
tistics. For  Africa  it  is,  of  course,  still  shorter.  Physi- 
cians in  China  and  Japan  recommend  seven  years  as 
the  longest  period  for  the  first  term,  eight  to  ten  for 
the  second.  But  the  boards  which  have  the  manage- 
ment of  the  matter  look  at  it  from  a  different  point 
of  view.  The  expense  of  bringing  a  missionary  home 
is  great,  the  loss  to  the  field  is  far  greater,  and  what, 
perhaps,  counts  still  more,  the  church  at  home  does 
not  understand  why  so  many  missionaries  keep  com- 
ing and  going.  Accordingly,  where  there  are  any 
rules  at  all,  the  first  period  is  usually  made  ten  years, 
with  a  furlough  then  of  a  year  and  a  half,  with  ensu- 
ing terms  of  seven  years.    The  American  Board,  how- 

io6 


HOME   AND    REST    OF    THE    MISSIONARY 

ever,  declined  to  adopt  any  rules  whatever.  There  Is, 
I  believe,  a  tacit  understanding  that  a  man  may  come 
home  at  the  end  of  ten  years.  This  is  not  a  matter 
about  which  missionaries  say  much.  It  is  not  easy  for 
them  to  plead  their  own  cause.  I  find  the  matter 
fairly  taken  up  in  but  one  conference,  that  at  Osaka, 
in  1883,  where  Dr.  Berry  and  Dr.  Taylor  gave  papers 
which  should  be  read  by  all.  Just  because  they  can- 
not easily  speak  for  themselves,  there  is  the  more  rea- 
son for  home  pastors,  who  enjoy  from  one  to  three 
months'  vacation  every  year,  to  protect  the  interests  of 
their  brethren  in  the  field.  A  careful  study  of  the 
matter  on  the  ground,  in  conference  with  the  brethren 
there,  has  brought  certain  suggestions  to  mind  which 
I  submit  with  due  respect.  We  might  adopt  a  rule 
permitting  missionaries  in  Asia  to  come  home  at  the 
end  of  seven,  and  requiring  a  return  at  the  end  of  ten 
years  the  first  time,  allowing  from  ten  to  twelve  years 
for  the  second  term,  with  a  furlough  of  eighteen 
months  each  time.  About  the  same  salary  as  on  the 
field  could  be  continued  while  at  home,  and  expenses 
of  the  trip  be  paid  both  ways.  From  one-third  to  one- 
half  of  the  time  might  be  at  the  disposal  of  the  society 
for  assistance  in  the  rooms,  or  for  deputation  work 
among  the  churches.  The  society  should  stand  in  such 
relation  to  the  churches  that  it  can  send  men  whom  it 
chooses  from  time  to  time  into  the  different  pulpits, 
giving  the  fullest  and  best  presentation  of  the  cause, 
and  saving  some  expense  of  field  and  district  secre- 
taries. If  this  were  the  rule  of  the  different  boards, 
and  so  understood  by  the  churches,  it  would  do  away 
with  some  of  the  wonder  expressed  at  seeing  so  many 
missionaries  at  home.  The  expense  of  such  a  system 
would  in  the  end  be  less  than  now.  Wallace  Taylor, 
M.D.,  said  at  Osaka,  "  The  present  haphazard,  unsys- 

107 


INTRODUCTION   TO   FOREIGN   MISSIONS 

tematic  methods  of  most  missions  and  boards  are  at- 
tended with  the  greatest  expense  and  the  poorest 
returns.  Some  men  break  down  partially  after  four 
or  five  years  in  Japan,  but  go  on  two  or  three  years 
longer,  doing  half- work  rather  than  ask  to  come  home. 
Then  when  men  do  come  home  they  are  often  so  much 
broken  down  that  they  are  for  a  long  time  unfitted 
to  do  anything  but  rest.  Without  some  rule,  other 
men  work  on  indefinitely  till  an  utter  collapse  comes, 
from  which  perhaps  they  do  not  recover  for  years." 

There  is  still  one  other  matter  in  connection  with 
the  home  and  rest  of  the  missionary  about  which  I 
wish  to  speak.  The  theory  of  a  missionary's  pay  is 
that  it  should  be  simply  a  living  salary,  affording  just 
enough  for  an  economical,  comfortable  subsistence 
from  year  to  year.  Various  allowances  are  made  for 
children,  teacher,  house  rent,  travelling  expenses, 
health  fund,  etc.  All  this  seems  to  be  wise.  Little 
inquiry  is  made  about  such  matters  by  missionaries 
when  they  go  out,  and  I  do  not  remember  hearing  one 
word  of  complaint  from  any  missionary  because  of  the 
smallness  of  his  allowance. 

There  is  just  one  weak  point,  which  often  becomes 
a  very  sore  point.  Receiving  in  this  way  a  barely  liv- 
ing salary,  none  of  them  can  be  expected  with  it  to 
make  any  provision  for  the  future.  Yet  there  are  few 
classes  of  men  who  have  greater  need  of  such  provi- 
sion. They  have  withdrawn  from  the  home  field,  with 
its  promotions  and  distinctions  and  friendly  support. 
They  have  put  themselves  on  a  dead  level  of  uniform 
salary,  the  veteran  receiving  no  more  than  the  novice ; 
they  have  more  or  less  unfitted  themselves  to  engage 
in  work  at  home,  and  have  counted  it  a  privilege  to 
pour  out  the  treasures  of  their  life  on  heathen  soil. 
At  last,  however,  their  work  is  done.     They  have  ex- 

io8 


HOME   AND   REST   OF   THE   MISSIONARY 

hausted  their  strength  in  a  foreign  land ;  they  will  not 
go  on  drawing  salary  for  work  they  cannot  do,  taking 
the  place  of  a  more  efficient  man.  The  worn-out  mis- 
sionary family  comes  home.  Their  salary  ceases ;  they 
have  laid  up  nothing;  what  are  they  to  do?  If  they 
have  ever  hinted  at  this  contingency,  they  have  been 
told  to  leave  the  future  with  God.  That  has  seemed 
to  say,  •'  The  society  will  provide  for  the  bare  present. 
Then  God  must  take  care  of  you."  Still  they  know 
that  is  not  so  meant.  The  society  will  make  grants  to 
them  according  to  their  need.  With  how  little  can 
they  get  along?  The  thought  of  their  relatives  comes 
to  them,  perhaps  of  their  children.  If  any  of  those 
relatives  are  wealthy,  the  missionaries  may  say,  *'  We 
would  rather  depend  on  them,  if  possible,  than  take 
money  which  would  otherwise  go  out  to  the  field." 
If  not,  they  name  the  least  sum  they  can  get  along 
with.  Perhaps  they  live  on  here  for  years  without 
quite  starving.  They  feel  themselves  a  burden  to  the 
board;  their  self-respect  is  wounded;  their  hearts  are 
heavy.  And  these  are  the  people  who  have  been  doing 
our  work  in  planting  the  church  round  the  world. 
Perhaps  the  missionary  has  died,  and  the  widow  and 
children  are  to  be  cared  for.  This  condition  of  things 
is  not  the  fault  of  the  secretaries.  Few  know  and 
honor  the  missionaries  as  they  do.  It  is  the  fault  of 
the  system.  But  since  the  society  requires,  justly,  that 
men  give  themselves  to  the  work  for  life;  since  it, 
justly,  too,  pays  them  only  a  living  salary,  then  ought 
not  the  society  to  do  God's  work  in  making  provision 
for  the  future  of  every  one  who  gives  it  faithful  life 
service  ?  I  have  talked  much  about  this  matter  with  mis- 
sionaries and  secretaries,  and  there  is  but  one  arrange- 
ment which  seems  to  promise  proper  justice :  that  is, 
to  secure  a  good  life  insurance  on  its  missionaries  on 

109 


INTRODUCTION  TO   FOREIGN   MISSIONS 

such  terms  that  each  one  of  them,  or  his  widow,  or 
their  children,  should  have  the  benefit  of  it  in  case  of 
need,  or  after  a  certain  term  of  service.  That  would 
be  much  better  than  a  missionary,  or  widows'  or  or- 
phans' relief  fund.  If  an  insurance  fund  should  be 
raised,  it  would  leave  the  other  funds  of  the  board 
untouched.  I  speak  of  this  because  it  is  just  the  thing 
of  which  the  missionaries  can  least  speak,  and  because 
the  claims  of  justice  seem  pressing.  If  the  pastors  at 
home  will  take  the  matter  into  their  hands,  something 
may  be  done.  A  move  is  being  made  in  England  and 
Europe  to  have  the  state  pension  aged  poverty.  How 
much  greater  reason  for  the  church  to  pension  its 
faithful  aged  servants  in  the  missionary  cause! 

This  whole  matter  of  vacations,  furloughs,  and  re- 
tirement demands  more  careful  and  systematic  treat- 
ment than  it  has  hitherto  received.  We  are  passing 
out  of  the  experimental  and  entering  on  the  profes- 
sional stage.  The  accumulated  experience  of  these 
many  years  should  furnish  us  the  proper  principles  of 
action.  We  dwell  constantly  on  the  work  of  mission- 
aries. We  are  eager  enough  to  enlist  them  for  the 
service,  provided  they  meet  our  conditions.  Hitherto 
we  have  given  little  thought  for  their  provisions  when 
they  have  retired.  Let  us  remember  that  they  are  men 
and  women,  husbands  and  wives,  fathers  and  mothers 
and  children,  as  well  as  missionaries,  and  let  us  have 
a  care  for  their  home,  first  when  they  are  on  the  field, 
then  when  they  come  back  here  to  rest,  or  to  die. 

We  have  penetrated  into  the  home  of  the  missionary. 
May  we  not  venture  to  go  one  step  further  and  look 
into  his  heart  and  inner  life?  I  hesitate  here  more 
than  at  any  point.  If  the  home  is  the  sanctum,  the 
heart  is  the  sanctum  sanctorum.  Yet  into  these  hearts 
and  lives  I  have  been  permitted  to  look,  and  I  may  so 

no 


HOME   AND   REST   OF   THE    MISSIONARY 

far  share  my  experience  with  my  readers  as  to  say  a 
few  words  about  the  trials,  perils,  and  temptations,  as 
well  as  the  supports,  the  satisfactions,  and  the  crown 
of  missionary  life. 

Among  trials  I  do  not  mention  those  most  com- 
monly included,  springing  from  climate,  exposure,  dis- 
comfort, disease,  etc.  There  is  both  more  and  less  of 
this  than  we  can  know.  But  the  missionary  does  not 
pose  as  claiming  special  sympathy  or  interest  in  his 
work  on  this  account.  Very  many  of  the  heaviest  bur- 
dens, however,  are  summed  up  in  the  one  word  whose 
height  and  breadth  and  length  and  depth  none  knov/s 
so  well  as  he  —  that  word,  exile.  It  is  not  merely  a 
physical  exile  from  home  and  country  and  all  their 
interests;  it  is  not  only  an  intellectual  exile  from  all 
that  would  feed  and  stimulate  the  mind ;  it  is  yet  more 
—  a  spiritual  exile  from  the  guidance,  the  instruction, 
the  correction;  from  the  support,  the  fellowship,  the 
communion  of  the  saints  and  the  church  at  home.  It 
is  an  exile,  as  when  a  man  is  lowered  with  a  candle 
into  foul  places,  where  the  noxious  gases  threaten  to 
put  out  his  light,  yet  he  must  explore  it  all  and  find 
some  way  to  drain  off  the  refuse  and  let  in  the  sweet 
air  and  sun  to  do  their  own  cleansing  work.  The 
young  men  and  women  who  go  to  live  in  university 
settlements  in  the  lower  part  of  our  cities  have  a  trying 
task,  yet  they  are  close  to  St.  Paul's  and  Westminster 
Abbey,  to  Trinity  Church,  the  Boston  and  the  Astor 
Library,  and  all  the  cultivated  and  spiritual  life  of  our 
time.  The  missionary  is  not  only  torn  away  from 
those  social  bonds  that  sustain,  or  even  almost  com- 
pose, our  mental,  moral,  and  spiritual  life,  but  he  is 
forced  into  closest  relations  with  heathenism,  whose 
evils  he  abhors,  whose  power  and  fascinations,  too,  he 
dreads.    And  when  at  last  he  can  save  his  own  chil- 

III 


INTRODUCTION   TO    FOREIGN   MISSIONS 

dren  only  by  being  bereft  of  them,  he  feels  himself 
an  exile  indeed.  Added  to  this  is  the  daily  bur- 
den which  pressed  on  Paul  — "  anxiety  for  all  the 
churches."  He  sees  the  struggle  in  the  church  itself, 
and  in  its  members,  even  in  its  pastors,  between  the 
new  life  and  the  old  heathenism,  and  the  burden  would 
grow  too  heavy  did  he  not  learn  to  cast  it  on  the  Lord. 

There  are  perils  and  temptations,  too,  which  are  to 
be  specially  guarded  against.  Danger  of  growing 
wonted  and  indifferent  to  the  evils  of  heathenism,  even 
demoralized  by  them;  danger  of  eccentricity  and  nar- 
rowness and  morbidness  from  isolation ;  danger  of 
falling  out  with  the  brethren,  or  with  the  committee 
at  home;  danger  of  lording  it  over  the  natives,  or  of 
being  deceived  and  misled  by  them.  There  are  tempta- 
tions to  despondency  in  the  gigantic  task,  or  to  com- 
promise for  the  sake  of  conquest.  There  are  tempta- 
tions to  a  secular  life  and  spirit,  or  to  some  diver- 
sion from  the  real  aim  of  missions :  temptations  to 
shrink  into  an  ambassador,  or  doctor,  or  teacher,  or 
writer,  or  scientist,  or  builder,  instead  of  being  in  all 
things  the  missionary.  There  are  temptations  akin  to 
what  we  know  at  home,  but  they  come  with  strange 
form  and  force  to  our  brethren  abroad. 

There  is  yet  one  other  temptation,  of  which  I  prefer 
to  speak  in  the  wise  and  tender  words  of  the  instruc- 
tions of  the  Church  Missionary  Society :  ''  The  com- 
mittee are  convinced  that,  on  the  whole,  the  greatest 
danger  to  which  a  missionary  is  exposed,  especially, 
perhaps,  during  the  first  few  years  of  his  course,  is 
the  danger  of  missionary  ardor  abating,  of  some  subtle 
form  of  self-indulgence  or  worldliness,  and  of  a  low- 
ering of  that  constraining  love  which  gives  to  self- 
denial  its  true  character,  making  it  not  a  painful  self- 
torture,  but  a  joyous  self-forgetfulness."    In  reference 

112 


HOME   AND   REST   OF   THE    MISSIONARY 

to  all  these  perils  the  prayer  must  ever  be,  "  Lead  us 
not  into  temptation,  but  deliver  us  from  evil." 

If  it  has  been  a  duty  to  speak  of  these  things,  it  is  a 
pleasure  to  speak  of  the  joys,  the  consolations,  the  sat- 
isfactions, the  triumphs,  and  the  hopes  of  the  mission- 
ary life. 

First  of  all  must  come  the  special  ministrations  of 
Christ  to  the  soul.  The  more  one  is  shut  off  from  his 
brethren  and  down  into  heathenism,  the  nearer  does 
his  Lord  come  to  him  in  communion,  the  more  does 
the  still  small  voice  penetrate  his  soul.  That  is  the 
reason  why  the  biographies  of  our  missionaries  form 
one  of  the  best  portions  of  the  devotional  reading  of 
Christendom.  Then  there  is  the  joy  of  the  first  con- 
vert from  heathenism,  the  satisfaction  of  the  spreading 
light,  of  the  rising  structure  where  the  humble  apostle 
has  built  on  foundations  not  laid  by  any  other  man. 
There  is  the  happiness  of  the  first  church,  of  the  grow- 
ing Christians,  and  the  new  body  of  Christian  min- 
isters. Despite  many  hopes  baffled  by  relapse,  and 
expectations  greatly  moderated,  there  is  delight  in  the 
ripening  Christian  character  of  those  about  him,  and 
in  a  new  communion  and  brotherhood  with  the  native 
Christians.  I  have  myself  tasted  something  of  the 
sweetness  of  this  fellowship  with  men  of  strange  look 
and  tongue  and  garb,  joining  in  work  and  worship, 
and  partaking  of  the  sacrament  with  these  new-found 
brethren.  Christians  at  home  are  as  the  elder  brother, 
to  whom  the  Father  says,  ''  All  that  I  have  is  thine. 
But  this  thy  brother  was  dead  and  is  alive  again,  was 
lost  and  is  found.  It  is  meet  to  make  merry  and  be 
glad."  If  the  missionary  must  often  walk  with  the 
Master  in  the  Garden  of  Gethsemane,  sharing  his  bur- 
den and  agony  for  the  souls  of  men,  he  often  too  shares 
with  his  risen  Lord  in  all  the  triumph  of  his  victory. 

113 


INTRODUCTION   TO    FOREIGN    MISSIONS 

The  time  of  deifying  missionaries  has  passed;  the 
time  of  abusing  them,  also,  let  us  trust.  It  is  not 
always  possible  for  us  to  judge  a  missionary  justly, 
who,  after  an  absence  of  ten  or  more  years,  returns  to 
his  native  land.  Fresh  from  leadership,  he  finds  it 
hard  to  be  without  definite  vocation.  Fresh  from  a 
nascent  Christianity,  he  is  ill  at  ease  in  one  that  is 
triumphant  and  often  seems  corrupt.  A  long-time 
exile,  the  dialect  of  a  new  generation  is  not  on  his  lips. 
And  we  are  poorly  prepared  to  enter  into  hearty  sym- 
pathy with  his  trials,  his  hopes,  and  his  joys.  But 
God  has  been  shaping  him  into  his  own  likeness,  and 
when  we  read  the  life  of  a  Hannington,  a  Goodell,  or 
a  Paton  we  recognize  that  moulding  hand,  and  learn 
to  love  our  missionary  brethren  with  fresh  understand- 
ing and  gratitude. 

It  is  with  peculiar  satisfaction  that  I  recall  an  hour 
spent  with  Phillips  Brooks  shortly  after  my  return 
from  India,  when  I  was  expressing  to  him  my  thanks 
for  valuable  letters  of  introduction  to  his  personal 
friends.  Desirous  of  having  my  own  judgment  as  to 
the  comparative  standing  of  our  brethren  at  home  and 
abroad  confirmed,  I  asked  him  his  opinion,  derived 
from  his  experiences  on  the  field  abroad.  "  As  a 
body,"  was  his  reply,  "  the  missionaries,  both  for  abil- 
ity and  piety,  stand  at  a  high  average."  More  than 
that  certainly  could  not  be  expected,  while  many  of 
the  most  conspicuous  heroes  are  to  be  found  among 
those  whose  lives  have  been  shaped  and  whose  char- 
acters moulded  by  their  work  on  the  mission  field. 

There  are  many  incidental  satisfactions  on  which  I 
have  no  time  to  dwell.  To  participate  in  the  great 
work  of  lifting  up  degraded  humanity  is  itself  an  in- 
spiration. But  when  the  faithful  worker  sees  the 
kingdom  of  God  spreading  through  a  great  people, 

114 


HOME   AND   REST    OF   THE    MISSIONARY 

the  native  church  established  and  propagating  itself. 
Providence  bringing  hght  out  of  darkness,  and  hope 
out  of  despair;  when  after  long  delay  all  Christian 
agencies  seem  at  last  to  enter  on  a  triumphal  course, 
developing  graces  peculiar  to  the  very  land  one  occu- 
pies, or  in  a  degree  not  often  found  at  home;  when 
native  pastors,  the  fruit  of  one's  own  ministry,  begin 
to  preach  with  such  depth  and  richness  of  spirit  that 
the  soul  of  the  missionary  is  fed  more  than  by  any  dis- 
courses he  hears  from  his  home  brethren,  and  new 
gleams  of  light  and  new  meaning  for  old  texts  flash 
forth  for  him  through  the  experience  and  interpreta- 
tion of  his  own  converts;  when  sects  founded  by  mis- 
sions at  the  start  melt  together  into  a  larger  native 
church,  an  example  to  all  the  sects  at  home  —  oh,  what 
a  crown  is  this  to  the  exile's  life !  Has  home  a  joy  to 
compare  with  it?  And  when  in  land  after  land  the 
native  church  shall  one  day  eclipse  the  mission,  will 
not  the  missionaries  say,  with  the  soul- filled  joy  of  old 
Simeon,  "  Now  lettest  thou  thy  servant  depart  in 
peace,  for  mine  eyes  have  seen  thy  salvation  "  ?  To- 
day, looking  across  the  waters,  the  same  vision  rises 
before  me.  I  know  it  to  be  true,  because  God  is  true. 
And  I  know,  too,  that  if  we  are  faithful,  if  Christen- 
dom is  faithful,  its  accomplishment  is  not  far  hence. 


Its 


THE  PROBLEMS  OF  MISSIONS 

Into  whichever  of  the  great  departments  of  work 
the  newcomer  on  the  mission  field  may  enter,  he  can- 
not proceed  very  far  without  encountering  problems 
of  the  most  serious  nature,  which  tax  and  often  baffle 
his  best  judgment  —  problems  which  may  to  a  great 
extent  be  ignored  in  our  home  reports,  but  which  loom 
up  large  on  the  field  itself.  He  discovers,  too,  that 
these  same  questions  have  tried  and  sometimes  divided 
almost  every  mission.  It  is  therefore  most  important 
fairly  to  present  many  of  these  problems  to  the  church 
at  home,  not  only  in  order  to  prepare  men  who  are 
going  out  for  this  feature  of  their  work,  but  also  to 
enable  pastors  and  churches  at  home  to  sympathize 
and,  so  far  as  possible,  cooperate  with  pastors  and 
churches  abroad. 

One  of  the  problems  nearest  to  our  thought  is  that 
of  cooperation  in  missions.  There  is,  thank  God,  much 
cooperation  already.  Christians  and  churches  are 
joined  in  support  of  their  respective  denominational 
societies.  A  few  union  societies,  such  as  the  Bible  and 
Tract  Societies,  the  Young  Men's  Christian  Associa- 
tion, the  Christian  Endeavor  Society,  and  the  China 
Inland  Mission,  show  the  cooperation  of  denomina- 
tions. At  Madras,  Calcutta,  and  Shanghai  I  found 
what,  doubtless,  exist  elsewhere  —  monthly  confer- 
no 


THE    PROBLEMS    OF    MISSIONS 

ences  of  missionaries  of  all  churches.  In  London  there 
has  long  been  held  a  monthly  conference  of  mission 
secretaries  of  various  societies.  There  are  union  pe- 
riodicals, such  as  the  Chinese  Recorder  and  the  Indian 
Evangelical  Review.  The  Christian  college  at  Madras 
is  supported  by  several  different  churches.  Local  con- 
ferences, such  as  those  held  at  Shanghai,  and  general 
conferences  like  that  of  London  in  1888,  both  express 
and  beget  cooperation.  The  union  of  Presbyterian 
churches  at  Amoy  and  Swatow  and  throughout  Japan 
is  noble  evidence  of  the  power  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  To 
the  Presbyterian  union  in  China,  however,  the  Dutch 
Reformed  Church  made  vigorous  opposition  until  over- 
come by  the  firmness  of  their  own  missionaries.  More 
successful,  unfortunately,  was  the  opposition  of  a  num- 
ber of  Congregationalists  to  the  grandest  union  move- 
ment started  yet  —  that  of  the  two  leading  Christian 
bodies  in  Japan,  the  Presbyterians  and  Congregation- 
alists. 

Besides  all  this,  I  can  testify  to  the  general  impres- 
sion of  brotherhood  and  cooperation  received  in  visit- 
ing some  500  misionaries  of  many  churches  in  many 
lands.  I  have  been  entertained  by  independent  faith 
missionaries,  ritualists  of  the  Church  of  England,  and 
by  Roman  Catholics;  by  English  Baptists,  German 
Lutherans,  American  United  Presbyterians,  and  by 
men  of  almost  every  leading  denomination.  The  gen- 
eral spirit  was  fraternal. 

But  the  desirableness,  and,  at  the  same  time,  the 
difficulties  of  closer  union  or  cooperation  are  very 
great.  The  heathen  world  needs  the  evidencing  power 
of  a  Christendom  that  is  united  in  its  mission  labors. 
The  vast  work  of  evangelizing  the  world  also  demands 
the  most  careful  distribution  of  territory,  division  of 
labor,  and  economy  of  expenditure  and  effort. 

117 


INTRODUCTION   TO   FOREIGN   MISSIONS 

Especially  in  the  great  cities  of  the  world  is  coopera- 
tion important.  Nowhere  was  I  so  disheartened  at 
the  prospects  of  Christianity  among  the  heathen  as  in 
these  cities.  Each  society  has  a  certain  need  to  be 
represented  at  the  main  strategic  centres,  such  as 
Tokio,  Shanghai,  Madras,  Calcutta,  Bombay.  True 
mission  comity  would  prevent  their  treading  on  one 
another's  heels.  But  I  have  seen  the  spectacle  of  rival 
societies  bidding  against  one  another  for  both  scholars 
and  agents;  planting  weak  churches  side  by  side, 
while  large  country  districts  are  neglected,  and  dis- 
tracting the  minds  of  native  Christians  by  the  en- 
forcement of  distinctions  alien  both  to  their  thought 
and  their  history.  Even  in  towns  and  villages  the 
same  thing  is  seen. 

Even  when  the  territory  is  partitioned  out,  and  so- 
cieties occupy  adjoining  districts,  it  not  infrequently 
happens  that  they  make  havoc  among  one  another's 
converts  and  patronize  one  another's  outcasts.  The 
problem  is,  how  to  bring  about  a  practical  union  of 
missionaries  and  native  Christians  while  the  home 
boards  remain  distinct. 

The  following  are  some  of  the  practical  difficulties 
in  the  way  of  union: 

1.  The  distance  in  space  and  difference  in  tongue 
which  separate  different  missions,  or  parts  of  the  same 
mission. 

2.  The  absorption  of  each  mission  in  its  own  enter- 
prise, and  consequent  ignorance  of  others. 

3.  Ambitious  desire  for  the  extension  of  one's  own 
work  and  church  even  at  the  cost  of  others. 

4.  Differences  in  discipline  and  treatment  of  native 
Christians  and  employes,  allowing  them  to  pit  one 
mission  against  the  other. 

5.  Differences  in  minor  points  of  mission  policy  and 

118 


THE    PROBLEMS    OF    MISSIONS 

method,  such  as  self-support,  education,  etc.,  which 
are  yet  important,  and  which  characterize  missions. 

6.  Insistence  on  divisive  doctrines  or  practices,  such 
as  immersion,  apostohc  succession,  Calvinism,  Armin- 
ianism,  etc. 

7.  Lack  of  congeniality  among  men:  personal  re- 
moteness and  incompatibility.  It  was  just  in  the  per- 
sonal intimacy  of  a  few  men  that  the  secret  of  the 
Japanese  Presbyterian  Union  lay^ 

8.  The  unwillingness  of  the  church  and  societies  at 
home  to  have  their  work  "  swallowed  up." 

But,  after  all,  the  great  difficulty  is  our  distance 
from  Christ.  As  we  come  near  him  we  shall  learn 
how  best  to  cooperate  with  all  our  brethren.  It  is 
fulness  of  life  we  want.  Along  the  rocky  shores  of 
my  native  town  of  Marblehead  one  may  see  at  low 
tide  many  little  pools  scattered  among  the  rocks,  each 
of  them  cut  off  from  the  others  and  shut  up  in  its  own 
petty  basin,  incrusted  with  shells  and  covered  with 
sea-weed.  The  receding  tide  has  left  every  pool  thus 
isolated.  But  when  the  tide  comes  in  it  leaps  over 
those  walls  which  the  pool  could  not  surmount;  it 
fills  each  to  the  brim;  then  it  overflows,  and  finally 
buries  all  barriers  beneath  the  inrushing  and  uprising 
flood.  So  it  will  be  when  the  full  tide  of  God's  life 
rolls  in  upon  churches  and  missions  alike,  and  lifts 
them  all  above  their  petty  divisions  to  a  grand  com- 
mon life,  which  is  swayed  by  the  currents  that  swing 
round  the  world. 

The  Problem  of  Education.  —  In  a  preceding  chapter 
I  showed  the  natural  development  of  the  educational 
work  of  the  mission;  how,  commencing  as  a  rule 
simply  in  the  interests  of  evangelization,  the  educa- 
tional work  has  grown  to  a  vast  system,  often  over- 
shadowing every   other   form   of  mission   enterprise. 

119 


INTRODUCTION  TO   FOREIGN    MISSIONS 

It  has  not  done  this,  however,  without  opposition,  and 
forms  to-day,  both  in  its  extent  and  in  its  kind,  one 
of  the  greatest  of  mission  problems. 

It  is  said,  on  the  one  hand,  that  this  vast  school 
system  finds  no  precedent  in  apostolic  missions;  that 
it  is  comparatively  fruitless,  so  far  as  conversions  go; 
that  it  is  most  expensive  work;  that  in  its  higher  and 
English  forms  it  too  often  denationalizes  students,  un- 
fitting them  for  their  home-life,  leaving  them  at  once 
dissatisfied  with  small  things  and  incompetent  for 
great  things;  that  it  diverts  the  best  energies  of  the 
mission  from  the  proper  field  of  evangelistic  effort 
and  secularizes  the  teachers ;  that  Christ  sent  his  dis- 
ciples forth  to  teach  the  gospel,  not  to  teach  science; 
and,  finally,  that  it  is  a  misuse  of  consecrated  funds 
and  a  degrading  of  the  ministerial  office. 

Forcible  replies  are  made  to  every  one  of  these  ob- 
jections. The  apostles  did  not  teach  schools  for  one 
reason  —  because  they  neither  needed  nor  were  gen- 
rally  qualified  to  do  it,  Christianity  usually  standing 
on  a  lower  level  of  culture  than  those  it  evangelized. 
But  they  had  the  compensating  power  of  working  mir- 
acles to  bear  witness  to  their  apostleship.  In  China, 
science  discharges  a  similar  office  for  the  missionary 
to-day  that  miracles  did  then.  The  fruitlessness  of 
schools  is  not  greater,  it  is  claimed,  than  that  of  much 
other  work.  Evangelizing  is  often  carried  on  for 
years  with  no  apparent  result.  The  best  men  and  the 
leaders  of  the  Christian  church  are  more  and  more 
the  graduates  of  mission  schools  and  colleges.  Nor 
need  the  expense  be  great.  In  China  the  average  cost 
of  a  common  day  scholar  is  $3.50  a  year. 

Denationalizing  effects  are  partly  admitted,  being 
regarded  as  inevitable,  and  partly  denied.  Bishop 
Caldwell    finds   his    English-trained   men    willing   to 

120 


THE   PROBLEMS    OF    MISSIONS 

work  in  any  of  the  villages  of  Tinnevelly.  The  only 
way  to  a  higher  nationality  lies,  it  is  claimed,  through 
this  very  path.  Finally,  if  school  work  justifies  itself 
by  results,  it  is  neither  a  diversion  of  energies,  a  mis- 
use of  funds,  nor  a  degradation  of  the  ministry.  The 
same  work  is  done  for  the  same  purposes  at  home, 
where  millions  of  consecrated  funds  are  employed  in 
Christian  education,  where  nine-tenths  of  American 
college  presidents  and  three-fourths  of  their  professors 
are  ministers. 

But  the  educationists  are  not  content  simply  to  reply 
to  objections.  They  are  an  aggressive  body,  and  make 
much  larger  claims  for  their  work.  Women  and  chil- 
dren can  seldom  be  reached  except  by  schools,  and 
the  mission  must  found,  as  it  has  founded,  an  extensive 
system  of  zenana  and  higher  female  education.  That 
missions  have  given  the  great  impulse  to  woman's 
education  in  all  mission  fields,  and  so  to  the  elevation 
of  womanhood,  there  can  be  absolutely  no  question. 
We  might  well  be  content  to  let  the  whole  mission 
cause  stand  or  fall  by  the  value  of  that  work.  The 
home  rather  than  the  temple  is  the  citadel  of  heathen- 
ism. And  schools  for  women  and  children  are  among 
the  most  potent  influences  for  breaking  into  this  home 
and  lifting  it  out  of  its  degradation.  The  converts  of 
mission  colleges  may  be  few,  but  they  are  men  of  mark 
—  among  them  such  as  Narayan  Sheshadri,  through 
whose  instrumentality  2000  souls  of  the  Mango  were 
converted.  It  is  also  found  that  education  is  one  of 
the  most  effective  means  of  evangelizing  all  classes 
whom  it  reaches,  quite  apart  from  its  importance  in 
training  up  Christian  teachers  and  ministers. 

But  there  is  another  plea  of  the  educationist,  which 
is,  perhaps,  the  strongest  argument  of  those  who  de- 
mand not  only  vernacular  schools  for  Christians,  but 

121 


INTRODUCTION   TO   FOREIGN   MISSIONS 

a  complete  educational  system  for  all.  The  claim  is 
made  that  there  is  no  preparatory  agent  which  is  so 
efficient  as  education,  and  that  it  is  because  of  this 
indirect  work  mainly  that  it  must  be  pushed  to  such 
a  high  pitch  of  development.  God  used  many  long 
processes  to  prepare  both  the  Jewish  and  the  Gentile 
world  for  the  entrance  of  the  gospel,  and  it  was  due 
to  this  preliminary  work  that  its  success  was  so  speedy. 
He  has  brought  about  among  us  a  marvellous  develop- 
ment of  universal  scientific  knowledge  at  the  same 
time  that  he  has  opened  wide  the  doors  of  the  world 
as  the  sphere  in  which  we  are  to  use  that  knowledge 
for  his  kingdom.  Education  in  all  these  branches  is 
at  once  the  key  to  hearts  still  closed  by  prejudice  and 
bigotry,  and  the  universal  solvent  of  pagan  systems 
— "  the  quinine  for  the  cure  of  India's  fever,"  as  a 
Hindu  pleader  put  it.  It  at  once  disintegrates  the 
old  superstitious  mythologies  and  idolatries,  and  pre- 
pares the  way  for  the  understanding  of  the  new  truth. 
Almost  all  the  intercourse  which  the  missionaries  in 
China  have  with  natives  of  the  higher  classes  is  de- 
pendent on  the  fact  that  they  understand  western 
science  and  are  qualified  to  teach  or  practise  it.  The 
native  day-schools  in  every  city,  town,  and  hamlet,  it 
is  said,  are  the  great  means  for  imparting  and  main- 
taining the  Confucian  system.  These  teachers  are  the 
chief  upholders  of  heathenism  in  China.  The  schools 
are  a  drill  in  heathenism.  A  Berlin  missionary  once 
introduced  Christian  teaching  into  138  such  schools, 
with  1500  scholars,  in  the  province  of  Kwang-tung. 
If  this  be  continued,  what  an  effect  it  must  produce! 
Occupy  such  schools  and  teach  those  teachers,  and  the 
whole  land  is  being  prepared. 

To  the  objection  that  all  this  is  very  slow,  discourag- 
ing work  the  apt  quotation  is  made  from  Archbishop 

122 


THE   PROBLEMS    OF    MISSIONS 

Whately :  "  The  man  that  is  in  a  hurry  to  see  the  full 
effects  of  his  tillage  must  cultivate  annuals  and  not 
forest  trees."  If  God  took  so  long  a  time  to  prepare 
the  world  before  the  times  were  ripe  for  Christ,  we 
need  not  think  a  few  decades  long  for  preparing  India 
and  China.  Besides  which,  if  we  do  not  teach  science 
and  all  the  higher  branches,  others  hostile  or  indif- 
ferent to  Christianity  will  do  so,  with  the  result  of  a 
cultured  scepticism.  And  if  we  teach  only  the  few 
preachers  and  teachers,  neglecting  the  masses,  we  shall 
build  up  the  worst  kind  of  priestocracy. 

The  arguments  for  a  broad,  full  educational  system, 
it  will  be  seen,  are  strong.  It  must  be  remembered 
that  the  office  of  missionary  is  far  more  comprehensive 
than  that  of  home  pastor.  He  is  the  sole  representative 
of  Christianity  in  all  its  functions,  agencies,  and  devel- 
opments. We  must  learn  also  to  judge  every  branch 
of  the  mission  work,  not  simply  by  what  it  is  for  it- 
self, but  quite  as  much  by  what  it  is  and  does  in  co- 
operation with  other  branches.  It  is  not  a  congeries 
of  detached  and  spasmodic  efforts,  but  an  organic 
whole,  and  it  must  be  judged  as  a  whole.  It  lays  the 
ten  fingers  of  its  two  hands  upon  the  heathen  body, 
seeking  by  their  combined  action  to  tear  away  the  rags 
of  heathenism,  cleanse  the  foul  form,  and  clothe  it 
with  the  pure  robes  of  Christ's  righteousness.  Every 
department  has  its  share.  The  part  of  education  is 
quite  beyond  computation. 

When  all  this  has  been  said,  certain  dangers  remain 
which  must  be  carefully  guarded  against.  School 
work  does  tend  to  draw  men  from  evangelistic  work, 
especially  in  great  cities.  The  consequent  neglect  of 
that  department  is  greatly  to  be  deplored.  That  there 
is  also  a  frequent  secularization  of  the  teaching  mis- 
sionary cannot  be  denied,  especially  if  men  are  selected 

123 


INTRODUCTION   TO   FOREIGN   MISSIONS 

at  home  for  their  teaching  gifts  rather  than  for  their 
missionary  zeal.  It  is  most  important  that  an  evan- 
geHstic  spirit  should  characterize  the  mission  schools, 
and,  for  this  and  other  reasons,  it  is  well  if  every 
teacher  be  expected  to  give  a  part  of  each  year  to 
direct  evangelistic  labor  among  the  heathen.  If  souls 
are  being  continually  converted  in  the  schools,  there 
is  no  doubt  that  they  will  be  converted  in  the  cities 
and  the  villages. 

The  Problem  of  the  Native  Church.  —  The  central 
problem  of  all  others  is  that  of  the  Native  Church. 
It  is,  in  fact,  a  cluster  of  problems,  most  of  which 
can  be  wrought  out  only  by  experience.  To  consider 
them  will  take  us  right  into  the  heart  of  the  mis- 
sion work. 

1.  There  is  the  question  of  accessions  to  the  native 
church.  What  shall  be  the  treatment  of  inquirers 
and  converts?  What  arguments  and  inducements 
shall  be  used,  what  help  rendered,  what  standard  im- 
posed ? 

2.  The  question  of  the  ministry  of  the  native  church. 
Who  shall  manage  the  training,  employment,  and  pay 
of  all  the  native  agents? 

3.  The  question  of  the  independence  of  the  native 
church,  its  self-government  and  self-support,  as  con- 
trasted with  the  use  of  foreign  authority  and  foreign 
money.  Shall  ecclesiastical  independence  and  union 
precede  or  follow  financial  independence? 

4.  The  question  of  the  organization  of  the  native 
church.  What  shall  be  its  polity,  its  creed,  and  its 
relation  to  other  churches?  What  the  ecclesiastical 
place  and  function  of  the  missionaries? 

As  to  the  treatment  of  converts  and  inquirers,  the 
experienced  missionary  knows  that  the  motives  of  not 
a  few  who  come  to  him  are  mingled.     "  It  is  a  mon- 

124 


THE    PROBLEMS    OF   MISSIONS 

grel  mixture  of  faith  and  hope  that  influences  many 
of  them,"  said  Dr.  Scudder,  at  Allahabad  — "  faith 
that  Christianity  is  in  all  points  superior  to  the  relig- 
ions about  them,  and  hope  that  it  will  bring  them  into 
a  condition  of  prosperity  and  influence  above  that  of 
their  heathen  neighbors." 

"  The  accessions  to  Christianity  in  Tinnevelly,"  re- 
marked a  missionary  from  that  district  at  the  same 
conference,  "  have  not  generally  been  the  direct  result 
of  the  preaching  of  the  gospel  either  by  Europeans 
or  natives.  The  hope  of  being  benefited  in  some  way 
or  other  has,  in  very  many  instances,  been  the  in- 
fluencing motive  with  the  simple  people  who  attached 
themselves  to  the  missionaries."  The  same  testimony 
comes  from  men  in  all  lands.  Not  that  many  of  these 
converts  will  be  strictly  what  is  called  nV^-Christians ; 
for  in  ordinary  times,  certainly,  the  mission  will  take 
care  to  discourage  expectation  of  alms  on  the  part  of 
inquirers.  But  there  may  be  hope  of  protection  from 
oppressive  landlords  and  others,  hope  of  help  in  law- 
suits, or  of  employment  and  education.  Or  still  more 
generally  there  may  be  a  vague  hope  of  benefit  from 
linking  themselves  to  what  seems  a  stronger,  and, 
perhaps,  better  cause,  especially  in  times  of  famine, 
flood,  sickness,  or  trouble  of  any  sort.  Now,  shall 
such  classes  be  sent  back  into  heathenism?  If  not, 
what  shall  be  done  with  them?  Anything  is  better 
than  turning  heathens  into  Pharisees. 

I  know  of  nothing  better  than  what  was  written  by 
Bishop  Caldwell  a  few  years  ago.  He  says :  "  I  can- 
not imagine  any  person  who  has  lived  and  worked 
amongst  uneducated  heathens  in  the  rural  districts  be- 
lieving them  to  be  influenced  by  high  motives  in  any- 
thing they  do.  They  have  never  heard  of  such  things 
as  high  motives,  and  they  cannot  for  a  long  time  be 

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INTRODUCTION   TO   FOREIGN    MISSIONS 

made  to  comprehend  what  high  motives  mean.  An 
inquiry  into  their  motives,  with  a  view  of  ascertaining 
whether  they  are  spiritual  or  not,  will  seem  to  them 
like  an  inquiry  into  their  acquaintance  with  Greek  or 
algebra.  They  will  learn  what  good  motives  mean, 
I  trust,  in  time  —  and,  perhaps,  high  motives,  too  — 
if  they  remain  long  enough  under  Christian  teaching 
and  discipline;  but  till  they  discard  heathenism,  with 
its  debasing  idolatries  and  superstitions,  and  place 
themselves  under  the  wings  of  the  church,  there  is  not 
the  slightest  chance,  as  it  appears  to  me,  of  their  mo- 
tives becoming  better  than  they  are.  The  only  hope 
for  them  lies  in  their  admission  as  soon  as  possible 
into  Christ's  school.  Whatever  the  motive,  provided 
it  is  not  sordid  or  disgraceful,  we  receive  them." 

In  accordance  with  this  sentiment,  the  marks  of  what 
is  called  the  Tinnevelly  system,  which  has  been  sub- 
stantially adopted  in  the  Madura  and  Arcot  missions, 
are  education  and  discipline.  When  a  group  of  people, 
say  three  families,  are  ready  to  abjure  idolatry  and  be 
taught  by  Christians,  they  are  formed  into  what  is 
called  a  Christian  congregation.  They  must  promise 
to  abandon  idolatry,  to  worship  the  true  God,  to  ob- 
serve the  Sabbath,  to  abstain  from  the  use  of  flesh 
that  has  died  of  itself,  and  to  give  up  all  caste  distinc- 
tions. 

The  Arcot  Mission,  and,  I  presume,  the  Madura, 
requires  abstinence  from  intoxicating  drink.  The  Arcot 
also  requires  the  removal  of  the  kndumi,  or  tuft  of  hair 
on  the  crown  of  the  head,  which  they  regard  as  a  re- 
ligious badge.  Thus,  having  come  over  to  the  Chris- 
tians, they  are  supplied  with  a  catechist,  who  instructs 
them,  and  are  disciplined  into  the  observance  of  what 
they  have  undertaken.  Slowly  the  truth  gets  hold  of 
some  of  them,  who  are  then  baptized,  and,  after  a  few 

126 


THE    PROBLEMS    OF    MISSIONS 

years,  perhaps,  a  church  is  formed.  One  of  the  great- 
est difficulties  is  with  caste  distinctions,  which  keep 
springing  up  Hke  the  heads  of  the  hydra,  even  showing 
themselves  at  the  Lord's  table.  Finding  that  the  high- 
caste  men  tried  to  seat  themselves  in  front,  so  that  the 
bread  and  the  cup  should  be  first  passed  while  un- 
touched to  them,  the  Madura  Mission  simply  made  the 
rule  that  the  order  should  be  reversed  in  the  distribu- 
tion of  the  elements,  the  one  beginning  in  front,  the 
other  in  the  rear,  by  which  the  first  were  made  last,  the 
last  first. 

In  the  Arcot  Mission  great  pains  are  taken  to  secure 
intermarriage  between  the  castes.  This  education  of 
the  new-made,  perhaps  yet  unregenerate,  converts  is 
a  slow,  painful  process,  with  many  a  relapse  for  them 
and  heartache  for  the  missionary.  Yet  every  year  it 
brings  them  more  into  the  light.  One  difficulty  is  that 
the  missionary  or  catechist  often  stands  too  much  in 
the  way  of  the  convert.  As  one  has  put  it,  "  He  cannot 
see  beyond  the  mission-house  and  the  mission  treasury. 
The  missionary  is  a  little  providence  to  him.  The  am- 
bassador has  taken  the  place  of  the  king."  It  is  hard 
to  avoid  this ;  yet  it  should  be  carefully  guarded  against. 

But  at  every  step  of  this  upward  way  there  arise 
problems  which  can  be  solved  only  by  that  sanctified 
common-sense  which  ought  to  be  the  possession  of 
every  missionary.  All  his  experience  will  teach  him 
that,  as  one  has  said,  ''  there  is  both  endogenous  and 
exogenous  growth  in  the  church  "  —  development  from 
within,  accretion  from  without.  There  is  room  for  both 
in  the  spiritual  as  in  the  vegetable  kingdom. 

The  questions  concerning  the  native  ministry  are 
still  more  difficult.  John  Newton  once  said :  "  Only 
he  who  made  the  worlds  can  make  a  minister  of  the 
gospel."     If  that  is  true  of  students  in  Christian  lands, 

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INTRODUCTION   TO   FOREIGN   MISSIONS 

how  much  more  so  of  one  saturated  with  the  heathen- 
ism of  China  and  India!  Yet  it  is  just  such  men  or 
their  children  whom  the  missionary  is  trying  to  train 
up  to  that  sacred  office.  In  this  class  are  included 
Bible  readers,  male  and  female,  catechists,  evangelists, 
and  pastors  —  all,  in  fact,  who  are  in  any  way  to  make 
it  their  calling  to  serve  the  church. 

The  usual  method  has  been  to  select  the  most  hope- 
ful boys  at  school  and  train  them  specially  for  the 
work,  partly  or  wholly  at  the  expense  of  the  mission. 
But  the  results  are  far  from  satisfactory.  The  brightest 
of  such  men  are  easily  enticed  away  from  a  calling 
which  they  have  not  adopted  from  a  mature  and  dis- 
interested choice.  Those  who  remain  too  often  labor 
in  a  perfunctory  spirit,  caring  more  for  employment 
than  for  conversions.  Having  begun  as  mission  stu- 
dents, they  would  end  in  being  mission  agents  —  the 
missionaries'  "  hired  men."  Even  when  pastors,  they 
are  too  apt  to  be  simply  subservient  to  the  missionary. 

For  all  these  reasons  it  is  growing  more  common  to 
give  a  broad  training  to  many  men,  and  to  depend 
upon  the  personal  call  to  the  ministry,  as  in  this 
country.  Yet  some  noble  men  have  been  trained  in 
the  old  way.  At  present  our  mission  colleges  supply 
a  certain  quota  to  the  theological  class,  while  workers 
of  a  simpler  grade  are  called  in  as  catechists  from  the 
lower  schools. 

In  connection  with  these  educating  processes,  such 
questions  arise  as:  Shall  they  be  trained  in  the  ver- 
nacular only,  or  shall  they  also  be  taught  the  English 
language?  and  how  far  shall  their  English  training 
be  carried  ?  What  use,  if  any,  shall  be  made  of  Latin, 
Greek,  or  Hebrew?  How  far  shall  they  be  taught 
their  own  classics  and  religious  books?  Shall  they 
study  privately  with  a  missionary  or  be  gathered  into 

128 


THE    PROBLEMS    OF    MISSIONS 

a  theological  class  or  seminary?  How  shall  their  fit- 
ness for  the  highest  training  be  tested?  How  shall 
the  theory  and  practice  of  the  work  be  combined? 
Shall  any  of  them  be  encouraged  to  complete  their 
education  in  Europe  or  America?  In  regard  to  all 
these  points,  I  can  only  say  that  there  is  need  in 
every  country  of  a  few  men  of  the  very  highest  gifts 
and  training,  though  the  latter  should  be  given  so  far 
as  possible  in  their  own  land.  A  great  number  of  men 
are  needed  of  plain  biblical  vernacular  training,  of 
simple  habits  and  moderate  expectations,  who  can  live 
among  their  own  people,  and  be  supported  by  them. 
The  greatest  care  must  be  taken  not  to  denationalize 
the  native  ministry  —  something  only  too  easy  in 
India,  in  spite  of  the  resistance  of  missionaries. 

The  question  of  the  employment  and  payment  of 
these  men  by  the  mission  is  one  of  greatest  difficulty. 
It  touches  at  once  moral  subservience  and  dissatisfac- 
tion, if  not  rebellion.  The  missionary  becomes  a  pay- 
master, and  one  whose  resources  are  supposed  to  be 
unlimited.  Yet,  as  he  must  cut  the  wages  down  to 
the  lowest  notch,  constant  complaints  are  heard,  until 
bitterness  is  engendered  among  the  mission  helpers. 
This  is  by  no  means  always,  though  it  is  often,  the 
case.  I  know  of  no  way  in  which  the  evil  can  be 
more  than  alleviated.    The  fault  lies  in  the  system. 

That  appears  more  clearly  when  we  take  up  the 
problem  of  the  independence  of  the  native  church. 
It  seems  to  lie  in  the  very  principles  of  a  church 
that  it  should  be  independent  and  expansive,  self- 
supporting,  self-governing,  and  self-propagating.  Any- 
thing different  should  be  of  an  exceptional  and  tem- 
porary character.  The  church  should  be  at  least 
founded  on  those  principles  and  always  moving  to- 
wards them.     Yet  it  must  be  confessed  that  a  large 

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INTRODUCTION   TO   FOREIGN    MISSIONS 

part  of  our  mission  work  does  not  rest  on  this  basis 
of  the  independence  of  the  native  church,  or  even 
move  towards  it.  Another  large  part,  I  am  happy 
to  say,  is  mainly  based  on  that  principle,  and  always 
striving  to  attain  that  end.  The  whole  Japanese  mis- 
sion with  the  American  Board  at  the  head,  some 
work  in  China  of  the  Presbyterians,  the  Church  Mis- 
sionary Society  and  others,  all  the  Church  Missionary 
Society  work  in  India,  the  American  Board  work 
there,  the  Baptist  work  in  Burma,  the  Harpoot  Mis- 
sion and  the  United  Presbyterian  work  in  Egypt  — 
all  these  occur  to  me  as  excellent  instances  of  work 
along  the  true  line  of  an  independent  church.  But 
there  has  been,  on  the  whole,  a  great  failure  to  at- 
tack the  problem  at  the  right  point  and  aim  straight 
for  this  independence  of  the  native  church.  Many 
causes  have  conspired  to  prevent  this.  Among  these 
are:  (i)  The  necessary  inexperience  of  the  early  mis- 
sionaries; (2)  the  failure  to  see  that  the  aim  of  mis- 
sion work  is  not  simply  the  conversion  of  souls,  but  the 
founding  of  the  native  church;  (3)  an  exaggerated 
estimate  of  the  poverty  of  the  people  and  of  the  diffi- 
culty of  their  supporting  their  religious  leaders;  (4) 
the  unconscious  growth,  in  some  cases,  of  a  spirit  of 
domination,  which  leads  the  mission  too  often  to  exalt 
itself  above  the  native  church.  The  language  of  the 
mission  to  the  church  and  of  the  missionary  to  the 
native  pastor  should  be  the  language  of  John  the 
Baptist  to  Jesus,  ''  Thou  must  increase,  but  I  must 
decrease."  The  rare  quality  of  self-effacement  is  re- 
quired to  do  this ;  but  that  is  a  requisite  for  the  mis- 
sionary.    '*  He  that  loseth  his  life  shall  find  it." 

Despite  many  instances  of  generosity,  I  think  it 
could  be  shown  that  the  native  Christians,  in  most 
cases,  do  not  contribute  as  much  in  proportion  to  the 

130 


THE    PROBLEMS    OF    MISSIONS 

gospel  as  the  heathen  contribute  to  their  false  religions. 
There  are  two  reasons  for  this.  The  first  is  that  from 
the  start  they  lean  on  the  missionaries,  and  cease  to 
think  it  a  duty  to  give,  whereas  heathenism  exacts  a 
fee  or  an  offering  for  everything.  The  second  reason 
is  that  in  the  heathen  doctrine  of  righteousness  the 
idea  of  merit  is  connected  with  giving  in  a  way  which 
is  not  permitted  in  evangeHcal  Christianity.  A  Hindu 
or  Buddhist  heaps  up  merit  by  every  one  of  his  bene- 
factions as  a  permanent  gain  for  eternity,  whereas 
Christianity  allows  no  merit  to  the  deed  disjoined  from 
the  motive.  The  appeal  of  heathenism  is,  for  both 
of  these  reasons,  stronger  than  that  of  Christianity, 
until  the  convert  grows  to  maturity  and  is  inflamed 
with  generous  love. 

It  is  true  that  in  many  cases  the  poverty  of  the  peo- 
ple is  intensified  by  their  avowal  of  Christianity,  which 
strips  them  of  everything;  yet  in  the  course  of  a  few 
years  the  condition  of  a  Christian  community  is  usu- 
ally bettered,  while  the  spirit  of  giving  does  not  always 
increase  in  proportion.  Then,  too,  the  old  system  of 
largely  using  foreign  money  is  apt  to  enlist  the  native 
agent  against  independence.  How  can  a  man  who  re- 
ceives nine  dollars  a  month  from  the  mission  be 
expected  to  advocate  a  self-supporting  church  which 
could  give  him  at  best  but  six  dollars  a  month,  with 
greater  labors,  increased  trials,  and  much  uncertainty? 
In  the  American  Board  Mission  in  Foo-chow,  some 
years  ago,  a  man  whom  all  judged  fit  to  be  pastor 
refused  to  be  ordained.  The  whole  reason  was  that  he 
had  formerly  taught  that  all  contributions  were  a  mat- 
ter of  charity;  therefore  he  did  not  dare  to  say  to  the 
native  church,  ''  You  must  give  me  my  support."  In 
the  same  place,  however,  connected  with  the  Methodist 
Mission,  was  a  pastor,  Sia  Sek  Ong,  who  at  an  annual 

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INTRODUCTION   TO   FOREIGN    MISSIONS 

meeting  in  1871  declared  that  he  was  hindered  In  his 
work  by  the  oft-reiterated  charge  of  "  eating  the  for- 
eigners' rice  and  speaking  the  foreigners'  words,"  and 
that  he  had  resolved  he  would  not  thereafter  receive 
a  dollar  of  foreign  money,  but  would  trust  to  native 
support. 

Foreign  authority,  as  well  as  foreign  money,  has 
hindered  the  independence  of  the  native  church  — 
often  with  benefit,  it  is  true;  for  there  is  great  need 
of  guidance  and  restraint.  But  among  a  dependent 
people  it  is  hard  to  know  where  to  check  authority  and 
develop  self-respect  and  self-control. 

Of  all  these  difficulties  and  mistakes,  there  are  no 
keener  critics  than  missionaries  themselves.  Yet  it  is 
exceedingly  hard  for  those  who  are  bound  up  in  such 
a  system  to  reform  that  which  they  criticise.  Hence 
it  is  often  the  duty  of  the  Home  Board  to  interfere, 
and  give  the  missionaries  not  only  authority,  but  in- 
structions for  changes,  however  painful  they  may  be. 

I  think  it  important  in  this  connection  to  state  how 
the  Church  Missionary  Society  meets  this  problem  of 
independence  and  organization  at  once.  The  plan  is 
carried  out  in  India,  China,  Japan,  and  other  countries, 
and  has  shown  itself  most  efficient.  Every  church  has 
a  native  church  committee,  consisting  of  the  pastor  as 
chairman  and  at  least  three  lay  communicants.  Not 
more  than  one-third  of  the  laymen  may  be  paid  agents 
of  the  society  or  of  the  native  church.  This  committee 
has  charge  of  local  affairs.  Next  above  it  is  a  district 
native  church  council,  consisting  of  two  lay  delegates 
from  each  qualified  church  committee,  of  all  the  native 
clergy  in  connection  with  the  council,  and  a  chairman, 
usually  a  missionary,  who  has  a  veto  on  all  proceed- 
ings. This  council  receives  the  funds  of  all  the  church 
committees  and  all  other  funds,  and  disburses  from 

132 


THE    PROBLEMS    OF    MISSIONS 

them  the  salaries  of  native  pastors  and  other  agents. 
It  also  makes  grants  for  erection  or  repair  of  churches 
and  houses.  It  sends  in  to  the  parent  society  the  esti- 
mates of  expenses,  receives  reports  of  all  work,  devel- 
ops voluntary  work,  settles  all  salaries  and  allowances, 
and  recommends  new  pastorates.  When  necessary 
there  is  a  provincial  council,  similarly  constituted  by 
representation  from  the  district  councils.  Here,  then, 
is  a  complete  system  of  native  government.  The  mis- 
sionary force  is  sufficiently  represented  by  the  chair- 
man with  veto  power.  All  the  rest  develops  the  native 
church.  Grants-in-aid  are  made  to  complete  the 
amounts  raised  by  these  councils,  but  these  grants  are 
diminished  a  certain  per  cent,  every  year. 

There  are  some  points  settled  by  experience,  which 
may  be  called  axioms  in  the  science  of  missions. 
Though  they  now  seem  perfectly  obvious,  they  were 
not  so  at  first,  and  have  been  reached  only  through 
years  of  struggle  and  frequent  failure. 

1.  The  native  church  in  each  country  should  be  or- 
ganized as  a  distinct  church,  ecclesiastically  independ- 
ent of  the  church  in  any  other  country. 

2.  The  pastorate  of  the  native  church  should  be  a 
native  pastorate.  Whatever  else  the  missionary  is,  he 
should  not  be  pastor. 

3.  The  principles  of  self-control,  self-help,  and  self- 
extension  should  be  recognized  in  the  very  organiza- 
tion of  the  church.  To  postpone  them  to  days  of 
strength  is  to  postpone  both  strength  and  blessing. 

But  in  organizing  the  native  church  thus  independ- 
ently, what  form  shall  be  given  to  it?  What  shall  be 
its  polity? 

It  is  natural  that  every  missionary  society  should 
think  its  own  form  of  government  the  best,  and  should 
proceed  to  shape  the  native  church  after  the  same  pat- 

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INTRODUCTION   TO   FOREIGN   MISSIONS 

tern.  It  must  have  some  form.  The  natives  are  not 
yet  competent  to  devise  their  own  form.  What  else 
can  be  done?  Presbyterian  societies  will  form  Pres- 
byterian churches;  Methodist  societies,  Methodist 
churches,  etc.  But  there  are  certain  things  which 
should  not  be  done.    These  are : 

1.  No  purely  local  or  historical  features  should  be 
introduced  into  the  constitution  of  the  new  churches. 
Think  of  the  absurdity  of  requiring  native  converts  at 
Calcutta  to  assent  to  the  principles  contained  in  the 
Deed  of  Demission  in  1843  of  the  Free  Church  of 
Scotland.  On  the  other  hand,  regard  should  be  had 
to  the  local  peculiarities  of  the  people,  utilizing  rather 
than  antagonizing  national  traits.  More  or  less  ritual 
may  seem  required  in  different  countries,  and  a  greater 
or  less  degree  of  authority. 

2.  The  first  organization  given  a  native  church  can- 
not well  be  anything  more  than  tentative.  As  the 
church  develops  it  will  choose  its  own  form  and  make 
its  own  changes;  therefore, 

3.  No  unnecessary  obstacles  should  be  laid  in  the 
way  of  the  union  of  native  Christians  on  an  evangelical 
basis.  In  the  beginning,  before  the  new  communities 
have  crystallized,  it  will  be  easy  for  them  to  flow  to- 
gether.   Later  on  the  process  will  be  more  difficult. 

4.  As  to  creeds,  loyalty  and  simplicity  are  the  only 
rules. 

In  short,  the  native  church  must  be  an  oriental 
church  —  an  Indian,  Chinese,  Japanese  church.  We 
must  not,  cannot,  denationalize,  occidentalize  it  into 
European  forms,  which  would  be  alien  and  destructive 
to  it.  Yet  something  of  the  counteracting  occidental 
elements  must  be  infused  into  the  blood  of  the  church 
if  we  would  not  have  it  die  of  orientalism.  The  hardy 
tenacity  of  the  West  should  be  used  to  tone  up  the 

134 


THE    PROBLEMS    OF    MISSIONS 

more  dependent  and  flexible  oriental.  The  fault  of 
the  Indian  convert  is  weakness  of  character;  that  of 
the  Chinese  convert,  weakness  of  piety.  Each  of  these 
should  be  counterbalanced  by  some  special  gift  from 
the  West.  How  is  this  to  be  done?  Not,  it  seems  to 
me,  by  expecting  the  young  and  immature  churches  to 
accept  our  formulated  western  creeds  or  go  much  be- 
yond the  Apostles'  and  Nicene  Creeds.  We  shall  do 
most  by  our  training  of  the  native  ministry.  They  are 
the  men  who  will  form  the  faith  of  the  church.  If 
few  minds  of  theological  originality  or  independence 
have  as  yet  appeared  among  them  it  is  not  strange. 
All  the  results  of  nineteen  centuries  of  occidental  de- 
velopment are  presented  to  them  in  a  few  lessons.  It 
is  simply  overwhelming.  What  else  can  they  do  for 
a  long  time  than  try  to  grasp  it?  The  memory  is  the 
universal  talent  in  the  East.  Fancy,  too,  is  active ;  but 
thought  is  rare.  They  are  still  childish  races.  Since 
they  are  thus  plastic  under  our  hands,  we  must  be  the 
more  careful  not  to  fetter  but  to  free  them.  Biblican 
theology,  history  of  doctrine,  should  be  carefully 
taught.  The  knowledge  of  our  conflicts  with  Ebionit- 
ism  and  Gnosticism,  Arianism  and  Socinianism,  Pela- 
gianism  and  Manicheism,  with  Deism  and  Pantheism, 
will  prepare  them  for  their  coming  conflicts.  Some 
profit  must  accrue  to  them  from  the  experience,  er- 
rors, and  victories  of  the  western  as  well  as  from  the 
defeats  of  the  eastern  churches. 

Yet  they  must  have  their  own  experience,  fight  their 
own  battles,  and  gain  their  own  spoils.  The  new  up- 
springing  oriental  churches  cannot  always  be  held  in 
leading-strings,  even  at  the  risk  of  error.  Our  weap- 
ons of  defence  and  offence  will  often  prove  but  Saul's 
armor  to  the  stripling  church.  Nor  must  we  fear  to 
see  this  young  David  go  out  to  meet  giant  Error,  even 

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INTRODUCTION    TO    FOREIGN    MISSIONS 

though  he  seem  armed  with  only  a  sHng.  The  Lord, 
who  has  already  delivered  the  native  church  out  of 
the  paw  of  the  lion  Paganism,  may  be  trusted  to  give 
it  the  victory  over  Goliath  Error  and  Philistine  Schism. 
We  may  perhaps  furnish  the  sling  —  the  slender  out- 
line of  thought;  they  must  themselves  pick  up  the 
stone  from  their  native  brooks.  Other  churches  be- 
sides the  young  Japanese  United  Church  will  doubt- 
less pledge  respect  rather  than  adhesion  to  our  great 
confessions.  Their  spiritual  debt  to  us  must  be  im- 
mense in  any  case,  but  the  sum  of  it  will  be,  not  that 
we  have  infused  them  with  our  isms,  but  that  we  have 
inspired  them  with  Christ,  and  brought  them  back  to 
those  oriental  sources  and  streams  from  which  our 
western  currents  have  flowed.  Surely  Confucius  and 
Buddha  may  be  expected  to  have  as  great  formative 
influence  upon  oriental  theology,  so  soon  as  the  in- 
grafted truth  begins  to  have  its  own  development,  as 
Plato  and  Aristotle  have  always  exercised  upon  west- 
ern theologies.  It  is  in  this  way  that  the  oriental  orig- 
inal contributions  to  theology  will  be  some  day  joined 
to  the  contributions  of  the  Occident  to  form  that  ripe 
and  genuine  theosophy  which  will  embody  the  complete 
experience  of  the  truly  apostolic  and  catholic  church. 
In  regard  to  the  polity  of  the  Indian  church,  the 
Church  Missionary  Society,  five  years  ago,  passed  the 
following  suggestive  resolution :  "  The  society  depre- 
cates any  measures  of  church  organization  which  may 
tend  permanently  to  subject  the  native  Christian  com- 
munities in  India  to  the  forms  and  arrangements  o£ 
the  national  and  established  church  of  a  far  distant 
and  very  different  country,  and  therefore  desires  that 
all  present  arrangements  for  church  organization 
should  remain  as  elastic  as  possible,  until  the  native 
Christians  themselves  shall  be  numerous  and  powerful 

136 


THE   PROBLEMS    OF    MISSIONS 

enough  to  have  a  dominant  voice  in  the  formation  of 
an  ecclesiastical  constitution  on  lines  suitable  to  the 
Indian  people  —  a  constitution  which  the  society  trusts 
will,  while  maintaining  full  communion  with  the 
Church  of  England,  be  such  as  to  promote  the  unity  of 
Indian  Christendom." 

And  for  the  contribution  of  Christian  graces  which 
we  may  expect  from  the  Indian  church,  and  will  form 
the  basis  of  all  contributions  of  thought,  I  will  quote 
from  the  Rev.  Dr.  Kay :  "  The  catholic  church  cannot 
attain  to  its  proper  normal  condition  in  any  part  till  it 
has  embraced  within  itself  the  whole  range  of  human- 
ity. Every  nation  has  its  contribution  of  moral  quali- 
ties to  give  to  the  catholic  church.  I  am  persuaded 
that  the  view  which  makes  the  Greek,  Latin,  and 
Gothic  races  to  have  exhausted  all  that  is  of  essential 
importance  to  the  habilitation  of  humanity  is  a  pro- 
found error.  I  believe  that  the  Hindu,  for  instance, 
has  many  noble  qualities  —  lofty  ideaUsm,  singular 
strength  of  self-devotion,  marvellous  power  of  endur- 
ance —  along  with  natural  aptitude  for  many  of  the 
gentler  virtues,  which  we  may  not  rank  very  high,  but 
on  which  our  Savior  has  stamped  his  indelible  appro- 
bation in  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount.  These  virtues 
and  others  akin  to  them,  such  as  patience  and  tem- 
perance, seem  peculiarly  calculated  to  find  exceptional 
development  in  such  a  church  as  we  may  find  taking 
the  place  of  the  present  dark  superstitions  of  India." 

In  regard  to  the  future  of  the  native  church,  the 
great  need  is  life  from  on  high.  While  there  are  noble 
examples  of  Christian  piety,  and  while  great  imma- 
turity both  of  thought  and  character  must  be  expected, 
there  is  by  no  means  that  zeal  for  extending  the  gospel 
which  we  might  hope  for.  There  is  sometimes  mani- 
fest the  disposition  to  keep  to  themselves  the  advan- 

137 


INTRODUCTION    TO    FOREIGN    MISSIONS 

tages  of  their  new  position.  The  children  of  the  first 
and  second  generations  are  often  only  what  might  be 
expected,  seeing  that  they  grow  up  in  the  midst  of 
heathen  surroundings,  where  we  would  not  dare  to 
trust  our  own  children. 

The  great  problem,  how  to  preserve  and  revive  the 
life  of  the  native  church,  is  to  be  answered  only  by 
prayer  —  by  ourselves  receiving  a  higher  life  and  shar- 
ing it  with  them  until  the  gift  is  directly  communicated 
to  them,  and  imparted  in  turn  from  them  to  us. 

There  are  many  other  problems  of  every  variety 
which  press  on  the  mind  of  the  missionary.  There  are 
literary  questions  of  greatest  importance  in  translation 
and  composition.  What  terms  shall  be^  used  for  God, 
for  Baptism,  for  Sin,  and  many  other  words?  What 
shall  be  the  style  used  —  classic  or  popular?  Shall 
the  translation  be  free  and  idiomatic,  or  exact  and  lit- 
eral ?  Shall  familiar  terms  having  evil  associations  be 
regenerated,  or  new  terms  be  introduced?  Shall  the 
Bible  societies  circulate  Bibles  as  now  demanded  in 
China,  with  notes  and  comments,  or  adhere  to  their 
old  rule,  "The  Bible  without  note  or  comment?" 

There  are  doctrinal  questions,  such  as  the  relation  of 
our  eschatology  to  the  doctrine  of  metempsychosis,  to 
the  worship  of  dead  ancestors,  and  to  other  oriental 
speculations;  the  relation  of  the  Christian  doctrine  of 
incarnation  to  Hindu  and  Buddhist  incarnations. 

There  are  ethical  problems  of  great  importance  and 
difficulty.  What  shall  be  the  treatment  of  polygamous 
converts?  What  the  standard  of  life  and  character 
demanded  of  the  native  converts,  especially  the  native 
agents  ?  Is  secret  baptism  ever  to  be  allowed  ?  Should 
baptism  follow  instantly  upon  confession?  How  util- 
ize the  filial  piety  manifested  in  ancestor  worship 
without  encouraging  idolatry? 

138 


THE    PROBLEMS    OF    MISSIONS 

There  are  practical  questions,  such  as,  Has  asceti- 
cism any  place  in  mission  labor?  Shall  celibate  broth- 
erhoods be  organized  and  employed?  What  use  can 
be  made  of  lay  evangelists?  Should  offers  of  service 
for  a  limited  time  be  sought  or  received  ?  How  secure 
support  for  destitute  Christians  who  have  become  im- 
poverished through  their  adherence  to  Christ?  How 
help  and  not  harm  them,  sustain  and  not  pauperize? 
Shall  they  be  gathered  in  a  separate  Christian  com- 
munity clustering  around  the  mission-house?  or  shall 
they  be  sent  back  to  endure  hardship  and  temptation 
in  their  native  villages?  How  far  shall  they  be  as- 
sisted in  their  lawsuits  in  defence  of  their  rights? 
Shall  the  tithing  system  be  made  practically  compul- 
sory among  mission  agents? 

There  are  also  special  problems  in  Turkish  domin- 
ions touching  the  relations  of  the  work  to  the  old,  cor- 
rupt Christian  churches  —  the  Coptic,  Syrian,  Gre- 
gorian, Greek,  etc.  But  these  lie  outside  the  limits  of 
this  discussion,  and  can  here  be  only  referred  to. 

It  is  a  great  point  gained  to  know  of  the  existence  of 
problems  of  this  character.  It  is  another  advance  if 
we  can  simply  put  in  the  correct  way  the  question  that 
is  to  be  answered.  My  object  in  presenting  these  prob- 
lems is  secured  if  the  reader  is  led  to  an  increased 
sense  of  the  claim  a  work  full  of  such  peculiar  per- 
plexities has  on  the  very  best  preparation,  wisdom, 
heroism,  and  consecration  that  Christendom  can  fur- 
nish. The  very  cream  of  our  institutions,  the  flower 
of  our  young  manhood,  the  service  of  our  whole 
lives  —  these  are  none  too  much  for  a  work  whose 
dignity  is  just  in  proportion  to  its  difficulty,  whose 
joy  and  reward  is  measured  by  its  demands  on  the  best 
we  have  to  give. 

I.  Wanted  —  A  lectureship  or  professorship  of  mis- 
139 


INTRODUCTION   TO    FOREIGN   MISSIONS 

sionics  in  every  theological  seminary.  We  should  as- 
sume that  some  of  the  graduates  of  these  institutions 
will  go  abroad  and  should  be  trained  for  that  purpose, 
while  all  should  be  trained  to  intelligent  cooperation 
and  sympathy. 

2.  Wanted  —  The  discussion  of  mission  topics  and 
problems  at  our  ministerial  and  ecclesiastical  gather- 
ings. If  the  mission  work  is  at  once  the  most  arduous 
and  glorious  of  enterprises,  and  one  of  the  deepest  and 
broadest  of  sciences,  it  should  take  its  proper  place  in 
the  consideration  of  the  church  at  home.  No  theme 
presented  at  our  associations  and  conferences  can  sur- 
pass it  in  interest  and  fruitfulness.  We  listen  to  many 
stirring  appeals  from  secretaries;  we  are  kept  in- 
formed as  to  certain  features  of  the  work.  But  it  is 
all  too  much  like  the  kodak  prescription,  "  You  press 
the  button,  we  do  the  rest."  "  You  contribute,  we  do 
the  rest."  Whereas  if  heart,  intellect,  conscience  be 
alike  aroused  by  the  serious  study  of  the  work,  and 
of  God's  providence  and  purpose  in  it,  both  means  and 
men  would  be  forthcoming  in  abundance. 

3.  Wanted  —  Direct  participation  by  the  churches 
in  the  administration  of  the  mission  work.  Volunteer 
societies  and  close  corporations  are  often  a  necessary 
makeshift  when  the  church  is  not  as  yet  awake  to  its 
privileges.  But  the  true  mission  society  is  the  church 
itself,  and  everything  else  should  only  prepare  for  the 
time  when  the  church  shall  administer  its  great  enter- 
prise. Various  methods  of  securing  this  participation 
are  practicable.  I  do  not  undertake  to  specify  them; 
I  only  emphasize  the  need.  For  both  the  expression 
and  the  creation  of  the  mission  sentiment  in  the  church, 
for  the  enlargement  and  improvement  of  the  mission 
work  abroad,  one  of  the  most  important  wants  is  that 
the  church  should  representatively  administrate. 

140 


THE   PROBLEM    OF   MISSIONS 

4.  Wanted  —  A  volunteer  band  to  take  possession 
of  some  district  in  China  or  India  in  the  name  of  the 
Lord,  just  as  such  bands  have  labored  in  the  founda- 
tion of  Christian  States  in  Illinois,  Iowa,  Dakota,  and 
Washington.  The  first  members  of  this  band  should 
begin  work  under  the  supervision  of  experienced  mis- 
sionaries. They  should  be  reinforced  from  year  to 
year  by  fresh  recruits.  Men  should  be  trained  with 
reference  to  this  special  work  and  its  needs.  Men  of 
the  same  institution  at  home  should  more  and  more 
assume  the  support  of  the  whole  field,  until  it  becomes 
like  the  universities'  missions  in  Africa  and  India. 
One  of  the  greatest  secrets  of  success  is  thorough 
compatibility  and  hearty  friendship  among  coworkers. 
A  large  degree  of  this  might  be  expected  in  such  a 
mission. 

5.  Wanted  —  Finally,  a  more  robust  and  courageous 
faith  in  missions  and  in  God  and  the  church.  From 
beginning  to  end  this  is  an  enterprise  of  faith.  There 
is  no  other  argument  and  evidence  that  will  always 
and  everywhere  hold  good  save  the  evidence  from  the 
promises  and  the  nature  of  God  as  revealed  in  our 
Lord  the  Christ.  History,  experience,  statistics,  rea- 
sonings, everything  of  this  sort  will  at  times  seem  to 
lose  its  convincing,  sustaining  power.  If  faith  is  not 
supreme  we  shall  fail. 

But  it  must  be  a  robust,  courageous,  manly  faith  — 
a  faith  that  can  see,  declare,  and  endure  the  truth, 
whatever  it  may  be;  a  faith  that  can  discern  all  the 
hardships,  difficulties,  perplexities  in  the  way,  and  be 
not  only  undeterred,  but  rather  inspired  thereby;  that 
can  acknowledge  mistakes  and  admit  failure  where  it 
has  occurred,  and  then  be  strong  and  rich  enough  to 
utilize  success  when  it  comes  with  its  added  demands 
and  responsibilities. 

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INTRODUCTION   TO   FOREIGN    MISSIONS 

A  timid,  distrustful  faith,  that  keeps  back  part  of 
the  facts  lest  the  church  should  be  discouraged;  that 
will  not  imitate  Christ  by  declaring  the  difficulties  in 
the  way  lest  men  should  be  kept  from  following  him ; 
a  faith  more  known  for  "  judiciousness "  than  for 
courageousness  —  this  can  hardly  be  called  a  faith  at 
all.  It  certainly  is  not  the  faith  Christ  expects  from 
those  he  sends  forth  in  his  name.  The  gospel  appeals 
to  the  heroism  latent  in  every  child  of  God;  it  stimu- 
lates by  difficulty,  it  clarifies  by  perplexity,  it  thrusts 
men  out  upon  divine  grace  through  the  sense  it  breeds 
of  human  need  and  weakness.  A  supreme  faith  in 
Christ,  his  gospel  and  his  church,  will  lead  volunteers 
to  flock  into  the  lists  as  men  spring  to  a  forlorn  hope, 
where  many  may  fall  but  the  enterprise  must  succeed. 
Such  a  faith  will  insist  on  knowing  the  whole  truth 
and  will  dare  the  worst. 

Let  our  societies  and  our  churches  have  such  faith, 
and  they  will  trust  one  another  more.  Out  of  defeat 
will  spring  victory.  The  very  acknowledgment  of 
disaster  when  it  comes  will  enlist  recruits,  and  the  men 
who  thus  enlist  will  be  true  soldiers  of  Jesus  Christ. 

As  I  journeyed  from  station  to  station,  from  land  to 
land,  I  was  sometimes  quite  bewildered  in  the  multi- 
plicity of  detail  seen  in  church  after  church,  and  school 
after  school.  But  by  degrees  something  emerged  from 
all  this  detail  which,  as  its  proportions  gradually  re- 
vealed themselves,  I  saw  to  be  the  grandest  thing  my 
eyes  had  ever  beheld.  It  was  lovelier  than  the  Taj 
Mahal,  nobler  than  the  Parthenon,  more  enduring  than 
the  pyramids.  It  was  nothing  less  than  the  form  of 
the  universal  kingdom  of  God  springing  up  on  earth, 
the  New  Jerusalem  coming  down  from  heaven.  I 
came  more  and  more  to  see  how  all  men  who  are  labor- 
ing anywhere,  anyhow,  for  Christ,  at  home,  abroad,  in 

142 


THE    PROBLEMS    OF    MISSIONS 

public,  in  secret,  are  building  up  this  kingdom,  are 
drawing  down  this  holy  city.  If  we  yield  obedience, 
God  will  utter  the  command  and  impart  the  wisdom. 
It  is  enough  if  the  study  of  these  world-problems  may 
simply  lead  us  to  utter  from  the  heart  these  two  sen- 
tences :  "  That  which  I  see  not  teach  thou  me." 
"  That  the  excellency  of  the  power  may  be  of  God." 


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